Greetings, Wizard Writers!
Last week on The Wizard of Writing, we talked about how to write good action scenes with lots of sparks to keep readers flipping pages. Now I’d like to turn us toward zooming in on lackluster scenes and adding some sparkle to those scenes. How do we know we have a lackluster scene? Author intuition. If your own pace slows when reading a scene back during revisions, or if you feel like maybe a scene should be cut from the manuscript but need it in for continuity purposes, or if your gut is just saying: “this needs something” — then it’s time to add in the sparkle.
Here are 7 ways to add said sparkle. I hope this helps you, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments section!
1. Change the POV or perspective (onlooker, someone else)
Depending on your genre and your chosen POV, you may be able to get away with changing a POV in a scene to make it more dynamic. Play around with some of your favorite stories and switch the POV in your mind just to see how a scene would read from another perspective. How would Voldemort see Harry Potter in certain scenes? What if The Great Gatsby was written from Gatsby’s POV? Another trick you could try is making up a separate file on your computer, copy/pasting a scene into it, and then changing the POV from third-person to first-person or vice-versa just to see how it may read. You might find a different angle helps add sparkle to a scene!
2. Add a ticking clock
It’s been said that the audience loves a ticking clock. Think about adding deadlines, countdowns, bombs with timers, an approaching storm, hourglasses, or huge events like a childbirth where the father is across the country. Adding in this kind of race against time is exhilarating for the reader. Think about the movie Speed and how edge-of-your-seat you were when you watched it, and I’m sure there are plenty of books with ticking clocks that may even be your favorites. Model your scene after those stories.
3. Add objects/props/details
Another terrific way to add sparkle to a scene is to add in some details. If you write about a car, for example, give it a personality. Give it a bright color. Give it a history. You might also consider adding in some props, preferably ones that add some tension to a scene, like a knife balanced at the edge of a table, for example.
4. Introduce an event (weather, natural disaster, war, phone call, etc.)
If a scene is dragging, or even if you’re stuck writing a scene, consider adding in an event to shake things up. Oftentimes when I’m stuck writing, I’ll add in a weather event like a sudden storm just to get some action going. You might also consider a phone call that changes the direction of the scene—good news or bad news—as this will grab the reader’s attention.
5. Add conflict
If things are going smoothly, consider adding conflict to up the tension in a scene. This might include an argument, a parting of ways, or perhaps even a stretch of dialogue where two people are having an opposite reaction to an event.
6. Consider Arc/raising stakes/rising action
A good story will begin with an inciting incident, and the pace will keep going upward from there, until the climax and ending. Every scene you write in fiction should be with consideration toward the climax and ending, and every character should have a character arc that will be realized at the culmination of the story. Therefore, keep the action up by raising the stakes continually, even if just subtly. With this in mind, craft your scene toward your characters’ arcs as they move toward the climax of your story.
7. Try something crazy (reverse chapter orders, event orders, etc.)
When all else fails, go crazy. If you’ve outlined your story in advance, write each important scene on index cards, and then drop them on the floor and pick them up, writing your novel in that order. Maybe that’s an extreme, but you get the idea. Mix it up, flashback, flash forward, and reverse outcomes to surprise the reader. Start with an event, then go backward in time. Play around and see what happens.
Thanks for reading!
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