In a post on Writers Helping Writers, editor David Brown offers advice on revising your novel scene by scene.
In his work, Brown finds that most writers struggle with two broad areas: immersion and emotional draw. “Immersion is achieved with scene-based writing, which means a focus on the protagonist’s moment-to-moment experience of setting and conflict,” Brown explains. Emotional draw is more complicated, but the main elements are trajectory, anticipation, and stakes.
To enhance your story’s immersive qualities, Brown recommends combing through your scenes to find sensory details. “On every page, ask yourself what your readers might be seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling,” he says. “Judge each sentence by the following criteria: does it convey the focal character’s moment-to-moment experience of the scene? Or does it instead provide context?”
In this sense, context includes setting, world-building, backstory, and internal monologue. This element is important, but shouldn’t overpower the sense of scene you create with sensory detail. “Treat your readers like detectives—give them clues and let them come to their own conclusions about context,” Brown advises. This will help your characters come to life.
You should also review your scenes to see whether your protagonist makes a choice, takes an action, or reacts to an obstacle. “If the answer is no or if you aren’t sure, flag the scene for reconsideration: either bring it into the story’s chain of consequence or send it to the chopping block!” Brown writes.
When your character makes choices and experiences consequences, you have the beginnings of a plot, the bridge that takes you from the inciting event to the character’s primal change. “If you map out your story scene by scene, there should be a causal transition between each segment: this happens, therefore this happens, but then this happens, therefore…” Brown says.
