《How to Write Stories People Will Love》Question 12: Connecting scenes
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asks: My question is about writing connecting scenes. Like, my gang is about to go scuba diving, and I have to get them from their apartment to the dive site, and then from the dive site to a bonfire. I have no problem with the action that occurs at a location, but getting characters from one scene to the next is sometimes a hard slog for me. It oftentimes seems contrived or pedantic.
We all experience this dilemma. We have things happening at Point A, and more things happening at Point B, but what's the best way to show them traversing from A to B? The first thing we need to ask is, does anything significant need to happen between A and B? Here are a few examples of what I mean by "significant":
- Someone gets lost or injured
- Character changes his mind about something
- The weather changes, affecting things happening in Point B
- Characters have a meaningful conversation that reveals personalities or plot details
- Character needs to stop by his house to pick up a book
- Characters ride the bus to get to their next destination
- Character watches TV while waiting for friends to arrive
If something significant happens between Point A and B, then another scene is warranted. This means anything that advances the plot forward, or gives us a better understanding of the character(s). If the scene you have in mind does neither of these things, then it's boring, and we don't need to write it. We can simply bridge Points A and B with a symbol to indicate time passing. I personally use ***. Here's an example (italicized to visually separate it from my instructing text).
After agreeing we'd all meet at the beach, we went our separate ways.
***
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The beach was colder than I expected. I should've picked up a sweater while I was at my house.
See how that works? There's no need to explain what everyone did between Points A and B, because it doesn't matter. The important thing is they were meeting at the beach.
Sometimes, even when a significant event happens between A and B, you may not need to write an entire scene about it. You can simply summarize what happened. I'll continue with my previous example.
After agreeing we'd all meet at the beach, we went our separate ways.
***
I limped across the sandy beach, towel in hand and frown on my face. I hadn't expected to trip over a stupid shoe while running around my house in search of my swimsuit. Not only did I trip, I fell over and sprained my ankle. Now I looked like an idiot.
So the bottom line is this: if not enough things happen to warrant a separate scene, then fast forward through it. This keeps both you and the reader from getting bored with mundane details. Reader imaginations can easily fill in the blanks.
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It was not a new event, neither was it a rare event. It had happened before, and it would happen again. But while the event that transpired was not new or a rare, the thing it spawned, would bring a new challenge to the world’s adventures. Because this was the birth of a new dungeon. Cover: https://www.maxpixel.net/Fantasy-Character-Myth-Monsters-Cave-Creature-2706135
8 107The Life of an Undercover Conqueror at Specialized High School
2093 ADEarth's natural resources have been depleted. We Humans could survive only just for a few years. We became desperate, we search and search for new resources for us to exploit, but we never found them. Until someone thought of something. "The society of the past even though they had different problems, they must have an answer to their conundrum. Perhaps we can use them too." We continue our research, nights and days have passed, however all of our research only lead to one thing and one thing only the Philosopher's Stone. It could generate energy without having to take any energy. Basically, it broke The Laws of Thermodynamic and Einstein's Law Conservation of Mass Energy, no, all the rule and law that we know of, doesn't apply to the Philosopher's Stone. But how? Where can we found this crimson colored gem? 2094 ADWe the researchers at the Genesis Lab finally found our answer. The Philosopher's Stone is not a Gem or any other precious mineral. It is an Organism, that can replicate itself perpetually. Our greedy minds have already started thinking of various thing especially about 'how can we abuse this poor thing' kind of thought. We can feed them to livestock. Additionally the excrement of those livestock can be used as a fertilizer. Voila! Infinite food and oxygen. But still, we don't know where to find this crimson colored life-form. Spring 2095 ADWE FINALLY DID IT!When we are deciphering some sort of ancient text related to the Mayans, we found out about where it was and how can we obtained it. The method that ancient people used seems to utilize human sacrifice as an offering to Gods. But hey, now we know that Gods exist, and more importantly Their whereabouts. If the ancient people used human sacrifice as the toll to open the portal. Then, we the modern people could simply use some sort of mini-sized black hole with specific coordinate to force this hidden life-form come to this world. Fundamentally, we just needed to mimic the portal that Gods himself open to answer their offering. Allright, let's do this. Summer 2095 ADEverything is progressing as we wanted.Every trivial thing on our side seems to be working in order.We can commence the operation 'Child's Play' early next year.-LB-
8 132The Empress' Son
───── ❝ 𝐨𝐧-𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 ❞ ─────"𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙮 𝙢𝙖𝙢𝙖! 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪'𝙧𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙧!" "𝙄 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬." .....𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙡?!A guy who died in an accident and is given the chance to be reincarnated, where he remembers everything that happened to his past life. One of those is his execution at such an early age as the prince and next Emperor of the Vermillion Empire, but the worst thing than that? He started as a baby.Clydeur, the eldest son of the Empress, will do what it takes to change his fate and prove himself better than his younger brother, Klydeur. It's either he live a simple life, make himself an outcast prince, never meet the Empress, or win her favor and melt the cold heart of his own mother by being the charming prince.┍━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━┑Started: November 13, 2019Started (posted): January 1, 2020Ended: ____Language: EnglishGenre: Historical, Fantasy, Drama, Isekai, Comedy, RomanceBookcover by: Truly Yours❤┕━━━━ ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ━━━━┙Status: 𝐬𝐨𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝Inspired from: Who Made Me A Princess👑Original story (this is not a translated novel)
8 339Meat Suits
“Rejoice! Hell, and Heaven have declared a cease fire.”The news echoes into every nook and cranny of the universe. It’s true. New laws have been passed, forbidding all human interference or possession, punishable by death.As triumphant jubilation and excitement fades, reality rears its ugly head. Thousands of career orientated angels and demons find themselves not only jobless but also without purpose.Depressed, bored and without hope, angels, and demons scatter into the universe to seek out new meaningful and rewarding prospects.Pyriel, a disgraced arch angel and Asmodeus, her contentious objector demon friend, discover a “grey” area that technically does not constitute as human interreference or possession. Using their powers, they slip into, and re-animate deceased humans. They call them Meat Suits. They haunt the cities morgues, shopping for meat suits to use on their nightly pilgrimages in search of entertainment, good Whiskey, and biker gangs to annoy and terrorise. After one too many “Zombie” related incidents, management intervene. The duo are to be punished. Made an example of so other angels and demons, who are also using meat suits to roam among the living, cease their shenanigans. Their punishment? Their own, LIVING, human bodies.
8 70I Will Burn Up My Kingdom And Disappear
Rajid began his reign over the Djinn Kingdom with a dilemma.His father, King Justinian the Second, had manipulated his emotions to seek but a single goal. That is, to avenge the Djinn Kingdom from the horrible defeat of the Third-Year-War against the Lorope Empire.The Lorope Empire had summoned a diabolic beast known in legends as Salamander. It had single-handedly destroyed the Djinn Kingdom army and made Lorope win the war.How will King Rajid, the new King of the Djinn Kingdom, beat this invincible foe named Salamander?Wars and kingship management are the main themes of the story.I do not own the picture.
8 183Star Wars: Imagines, X-Readers, One shots, Etc. REQUESTS CLOSED
REQUESTS ARE CLOSED!!!Sorry for the Inconvenience!!Different Star Wars characters with different scenarios!« Anakin Skywalker »« Obi Wan Kenobi »« Luke Skywalker »« Han Solo »« Kylo Ren » or« Ben Solo »« Poe Dameron »« Finn »
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