scene – WRITE TIME AND AGAIN

Starting a Scene II: A Mind Map

Image• Posted on March 13, 2024March 13, 2024 by L. M. Montes

Planning Your Story

Posted on August 14, 2023August 13, 2023 by L. M. Montes

There needs to be some degree of planning, when it comes to writing your story/book. I’ll let you in on what I do. Maybe that will help you. It took me some time to figure out my own personal writing process as it relates to writing a book. I had heard and read about the planner and the pantser (see details of each below).

Planner: One who plans out ahead of time each chapter and scene, then sets out writing and sticks to what they planned.
Pantser: One who makes it all up as they go along with no planning prior to.

I’ve tried to be a planner. And failed. Why? Because as I’m typing along I always end up veering away from what I planned. Try as I might to get back on track with my plans, I couldn’t. More precisely, I wouldn’t, because what I ended up with was way better than what I planned in the first place. So, I realized I’m a pantser. Well, for the most part anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times when the situation calls for planning. In that case I use a journal to write down ideas to use for later. In my second novel I had to come up with seven poetic brain twisters for the main character to figure out. Those I planned, and each of them went into my journal. Also, when it came to some scenes, I’d sit down to write them, and I’d end up deleting and starting over. The scene was in pieces in my head and getting them ironed out was nagging me, so I set to writing in my journal the various pieces. Looking at them on paper helped. Once it all came clear, I set to typing my scene once more.

So, you see. There is always some type of planning one has to do. Figure out how you write/work/your process. Everyone is different. If you don’t know right now, take what others are doing, try it, and go with what works for you.

Scenes

Creating Flashbacks

Posted on August 9, 2023August 9, 2023 by L. M. Montes

In a previous post I gave a brief account of when to use a flashback. In this post I’ll be covering how to create them. It really isn’t hard. If done right, the reader will know and understand that a flashback is occurring.

But first, how does one separate a flashback from the rest of the text/story/scene. Simple…with an extra space gap between the paragraph just before the flashback starts and the flashback itself. Second, I always find it better if the flashback itself is in italics. There’s no rule that says you have to do this. I just find it better to do for the benefit of the readers.

So how do you lead into a flashback? Here are some samples of some lead-ins.

Sally thought about the first red rose she got from her boyfriend and smiled…..
Jeff leaned against the door frame and watched his family open Christmas presents. Nothing had changed since he was kid…..
Much like right now, my mother never did understand what happened that summer…..
I slipped my foot into the saddle’s stirrup, grabbed the horn, then froze. Would this time go smoothly, or would I end up like last time…..
Stan straightened his tie. He expected his wife, Dawn, to saunter in and take over then give it a once over, but not this time nor any other time. He smiled at the last time she’d done that…..

Remember, use flashbacks only when necessary, and don’t make writing them more difficult than they have to be. If you’re in doubt, have someone else look at it.

Scenes

Starting a Scene

Posted on May 22, 2023May 22, 2023 by L. M. Montes

In fiction, there are 5 ways to start a scene

With Action– Hook the reader by providing something about the character. Maybe their past, choices they’ve made, their desires. It will depend on the story you’re writing. Make sure it flows with the plot.

With Summary– Not all writing within a story is showing. There are times you need to tell, too. This is where that comes in. When necessary, and when the story calls for it, begin a scene with some expository writing. Make sure it’s relevant and prepares the reader for forthcoming events.

Introduce Your Narrator– What you’re doing here is introducing your narrator to your readers. Open readers up to the narrator’s mind. What makes them interesting?

With Scene Setting– Describe a scene. I like to call this introducing what’s coming with visual flavoring particles. What you’re doing here is giving the reader a visual setup of the environment within the scene that will then lead to the action/reaction within it. It’s setting the stage, in other words. You’re just doing it with description.

With Dialogue– There is nothing like starting a scene with tense dialogue or, what I call, inviting dialogue. It’s the type of dialogue that invites the reader into it to become a part. It’s done in such a way that engrosses the reader, and they won’t put your story down.

Which of the above you choose to begin your scenes will depend upon your story and its the flow.

Scenes

The Tug of War of Scenes

Posted on March 25, 2023 by L. M. Montes

Sentences jerked across the page. Tension climbed the mountain named Resolution only to be yanked backwards to tumble down the slope. The scene stood up and said, “One more time.” One word at a time it dug its heels in. It struck with clarity then penetrated and pushed its way back up the slope. Up up the tension rose then thrust clean off the top as the Resolution’s attitude defied them.

Dazed, the and scene lumbered to its feet then staggered. Resolution waved down at it in a mocking gesture. But now a flag with the answer whipped in the wind from the edge of the mountains crest. The scene gathered itself anew, dusted itself off, and marched along the bottom of the mountain and around to begin their climb again. But an invisible force stood in their way. For another scene on the other side of the force began their trek up the mountain ahead of them.

But, alas, that scene came tumbling down as well. It slammed into the invisible force. A bright light flashed. The invisible force faded. The first scene backed up, built momentum, then raced up the mountain a third time. Except now it raced at break neck speed. Resolution wasn’t looking. The scene ran so fast that it reached the top and grabbed the flag. Now Resolution had to give its secrets away to everyone.

Fiction

An Author’s Journey Pictorial (Fun with Pictures)

Posted on May 25, 2022May 25, 2022 by L. M. Montes

IDEA

JOT DOWN IDEAS FOR YOUR STORY

CREATE CHARACTERS

OUTLINE YOUR STORY (IF YOU ARE A PLANNER) AND WRITE IT

YOUR FINISHED BOOK

Writing

Story Tracks

Posted on May 23, 2022May 23, 2022 by L. M. Montes

Keeping track of your story as you’re writing it can be daunting the lengthier it gets. You have to remember from one chapter and scene to the next what happens where. How does a writer track their stories information so that they can refer back? Story tracks, or at least that’s what I call them. In other words, note cards.

For each chapter take a few note cards and jot down a brief summary of the chapter or scene, or jot down the main ideas about what is going on. By doing this, if you need to refer back to a previous scene or chapter in your manuscript, you can refer to your note cards for each chapter first before scrolling back through all those pages worth of text in your manuscript. Trust me, it will save you lots of time.

Scenes

Beginning a Scene (Part II)

Posted on April 30, 2022July 19, 2023 by L. M. Montes

I posted on October 22, 2021 an article about beginning a scene with action. Continuing that, we move to beginning a scene by creating a question in the reader’s mind. This doesn’t mean the author asks a question in the first paragraph. All it means is the situation at the beginning of the scene is done in such a way that the reader must continue reading in order to find the answer to what the information at the beginning of the scene is hinting. See the example below.

Example
Dan did a double take as he glanced up at two women, a blond and a redhead, entering the club. He’d seen the blond female before but couldn’t place her. Maybe she was only a face in the crowd. A nudge on his right shoulder interrupted his thoughts.

“Hey,” said Dwayne with growing impatience. “You join in the rest of the gang or what?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Dan turned back to the two women, but they’d disappeared. Shooting a glance in each direction proved fruitless. He ran outside and peered in each direction to no avail.

The rest of the evening, though full of laughter all around, continued to plague him as his thoughts returned to the blond.

The reader is left with a couple of questions:
1. Who is the blond woman?
2. Why is she so important?
There is enticement here. One wants to continue reading to find out who she is and what is the situation behind his familiarity of her. No action is really needed here. Although, one could easily add some to increase the velocity of the story pace.

Writing

The Mud-mire of Writing

Posted on April 2, 2022 by L. M. Montes

Do you get stuck in places within your story/manuscript? Do you sit and wonder what went wrong during the writing of your story after everything had been going so smoothly? Why did you get stuck all of a sudden? Why the brick wall that popped up and hit you head on?

Maybe it has to do with information being in the wrong place. As you know, a novel/story is broken down into three acts with act two being broken down into two parts (the chase and the attack). What happens when you are writing and part of what you wrote should be in another act and not the one you are currently writing in? You get stuck. The story is no longer clear in your mind. The result is, you sit in front of your manuscript wondering what to write next, or you try to figure out what happened that put a stopper in your otherwise smooth writing experience. The answer could be, part of what you wrote belongs in another act. So, try to move your text in question by trying in out in another act. If it is something that belongs in act three, and you have not written act three yet, save it off to the side for later.

Another answer is that it does belong in the act you are currently writing, but it is in the wrong chapter. For example, for a couple weeks I was stuck on a couple of back to back chapters. The story was making no sense to me. The clarity was not there, and up to that point it had been. Then I realized that one of those chapters belonged in front of a chapter three chapters up, so I moved it. This particular chapter had two scenes in it. Both had the same two characters in it, but time elapsed between the first scene and the second. When I moved the chapter up three chapters, everything began to make more sense. Then, when I started reading the second scene within the moved chapter, it made no sense anymore. I sat and played around with the chapter in my head and after about five minutes, I realized that the second scene within that chapter belonged in another chapter further down, so I moved the second scene in that chapter down two chapters and put it as a second scene within its new chapter. A-HA!!! Now everything made sense.

So, next time you get stuck, before you delete and start over, move your text around.

Scenes

Reaction

Posted on December 30, 2021March 29, 2023 by L. M. Montes

You’re writing a scene with an event that should strike your main character as surprising or distressing. BUT instead your character reacts in a way that makes no sense at all. Maybe you had your character have to shoot an intruder and it was the first time they had to shoot anyone. How would a person normally react in a situation like that, if it was their first time having to shoot someone?

Make sure your character who is going through that for the first time reacts the right way. If, for example, they walked away from the above situation behaving as though it was no big deal, then there better be a logical reason for them doing so. I say this because I know I would freak out if I had to shoot someone. Or I’d panic. Maybe others would become despondent or go into shock.

If your characters’ reactions don’t match the situation, the readers will know, and they’ll get distracted from the story. You don’t want that. It could even cause them to put it down, and you definitely don’t want that.