The softer side of making a scene
What's a scene? And when is it a chapter?
The Snarky Editor comes out to play when she discovers egregious and often hilarious errors in published books. But The Snarky Editor has a softer and more helpful side as well, the side that’s known as Leigh Michaels.
What is a scene? How does the author know where to start a new scene or chapter?
The dry definition is that a scene is a unit of time, place, and point of view. It’s a piece of the story action which most often happens continuously in one location and which is shown through the thoughts of one and only one character.
(I did warn you the definition was dry.)
Let’s take an example.
Jane comes home from work and walks into her house, surprising a burglar. She screams and drops her briefcase on the burglar’s toe. The burglar hops around a little (I forgot to tell you Jane’s an anvil salesman and she had her samples in the briefcase) and runs. Jane, with shaking hands, calls 911.
That’s a scene. It has a beginning and an ending; it shows action of the story; there may or may not be dialogue – though I’d bet the burglar said something when the anvil hit his toe. It happens in one place, in one continuous stretch of time, and we see everything through Jane’s eyes – we see what she sees, we are scared when she’s scared, we shake when she’s shaking.
The next scene might be Jane talking to the police who have come to investigate (there’s a gap in time, so it’s a new scene). Or it might be Jane filing a report at the police station (there’s a change in location, so it’s a new scene). Or it might be the burglar checking himself in at the hospital to get his foot X-rayed and figuring out what cover story to tell (there’s a change in point of view character, so…).
As always, these things are fluid, and they depend somewhat on the author’s storytelling style. If the police came right away, we don’t have to start a new scene just because a few minutes have elapsed. But that’s the basic rule: If there’s a significant change, start a new scene.
A chapter is a bit more artificial. It, too, has a beginning and an ending, but it may be composed of one long scene or several shorter ones. Or a scene might be broken into two pieces – ending one chapter with a nice cliffhanger or problem or question, and then starting up again just seconds later with the same POV character in the next chapter.
The only way to really capture this concept is to read with one eye on the structure of the book. Look at how each scene starts, how it ends, how the next scene is different, how many scenes are in a chapter.
In many books – thrillers, for instance – each scene is numbered and serves as a chapter, with some being quite long and others very short. In genre fiction like romance and mystery, it’s likely that chapters are more equally divided, often with several scenes in a chapter.
If you’re a writer, looking at how books are structured will help you organize your own stories. And if you’re a reader, looking at how books are structured will help you understand what the author’s doing — and how very cunning that author can be.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, your experience, your examples, your questions. Is there a topic you’d like to see addressed?
The Snarky Editor’s Softer Side is represented by author / editor / teacher / writing coach Leigh Michaels, commenting on random topics of interest to writers and readers. Leigh is the award-winning author of more than 100 books. (The Snarky Editor herself mainly comes out to play when she discovers egregious and often hilarious errors in published books.)
To find out more, check out https://leighmichaels.com
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