Part 4 - Introduce your scene into your story
Hi, and welcome. How are you going? Were you looking forward to getting back to working on your novel today? Hope so.
Has your mind pushed some of its tasks off to the side — maybe stress-creating thoughts — to get a clear run at tossing your novel around with mixes of new characters and sub-plots? Did you notice these ideas jumping into your head? Have you found patches of enjoyment writing can bring? Let us know your thoughts and how you are going.
Today we are going to explore ways of expanding the scene you have already written and assemble elements you can integrate into your blooming novel. These are a few suggestions to get your creative drive flowing. The number of stratagems available to you will increase as the volume of the work expands. Please don’t think that what we mess about with today are the only solutions. There are as many as you can imagine. Therefore, no limits.
At the same time, you can add to your structure and double — probably at least double — your word count. If you end up with one thousand words or more, you will have done a fantastic job and begin to understand how you will grow these words into a full-blown novel. At least one thousand words — wow. Some achievement.
Right now, your mind will be churning with all manner of ideas. Make notes — always make notes — of anything you think may fit your work. What do you want to write about? Having started with a vision of a setting and characters in it, you will want to work on converting a handful of words into the novel success you imagine. Unbounded possibilities await. The more you write, the greater volume of solutions you will have in your repertoire. This work is a means to an end — that of becoming a successful writer. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? Open up your notebook, if you haven’t already. You may find a point where you race off in a flurry of words. So be it. Your notebook is within reach, right?
At this stage, start asking questions about how your current scene fits the whole plot. Questions like:
Is there something of significance to one or both characters here — date, time, place, thing, person, event?
Are they hear to spy, search for or hide or pick up something or someone, destroy items or documents, meet with someone else or discover that the other character has also been attracted to the area?
Who are the other characters in this place — significant or merely indicating the types of people in the population? Do our characters meet with them — for lunch, in passing, at a hotel, in any way you dream up?
How, why, when did each arrive? Similar for their leaving — if they do.
How do people move about? Walk, car, bus, train, horse?
Shops, housing, major buildings, vegetation, geography, weather. Are they backdrop or important players? If they are here to serve as backdrop, don’t let them run away with your writing.
Is there a vital signal given to one of the two characters? Do they both survive?
Do you think it worthwhile to introduce us to other people they know — friends, family, lovers, enemies …
Just make sure that all the scenes somehow join into your unique story. Don’t leave us (your reading fans) to flop around in an alphabetical soup. Leave indicators at key points. We don’t need to be harangued with too-easy to interpret links, just enough to keep us guessing a little — intrigued by it all. We want to feel appreciated.
The first word target should begin to feel rather small now. Write for one hour. Take a break of around twenty minutes, then write for another hour. You may have to schedule for a later time, but not too far away. There’s a lot to do. Are scenes jumping at you to be included? I hope so. If there are, look for filaments of storyline that will hold them firmly to the central plot and form important communication links between scenes.
While you are writing, think about the rest of your story. Maybe it’s other people these two know or are yet to meet in other places. It could be the events that brought them together, leading to others forced by what happens right here. As always, keep notes of your thoughts. But first, concentrate on the dot points above. It is skeletal only. You will quickly realize more emerge to meet the demands of your work and your writing style.
When you have completed this part, you should have a start on your first eleventh (?) chapter that feels nicely satisfying, proving you can do this writing thing.
Good luck with pursuing the story from here. Now that you are working on a project, the next couple of articles will explore methods of tracking everything that you have going on and ones to plan/plot your thoughts further. See you then.
As always, we are always interested in your progress, ideas and thoughts, so just drop a line as you feel the pull to do it. Don’t be shy.