Tag Archive - scene structure

Why Story Endings Are Often Predictable – And That’s Okay

Here’s a reprint of a post I wrote a decade ago. Do you struggle with ending your story? Trying to come up with something startling or unexpected? You might want to think again.

As contradictory as this might sound, endings in novels need to seem inevitable without being predictable. When your reader finishes the book , she should feel that this was the only  way it could have ended. Everything has led up to this finale, and it just plays out perfectly.

This isn’t predictability. You don’t want readers thinking they knew exactly what was going to happen and are bored as they hurriedly flip through the last pages of the book.

Recently I read a couple of award-winning sci-fi novels that were really pretty good until about the last fifty pages. I found myself starting to skim through the inevitable spaceship battles and the endings—to the point that I didn’t really read the last chapters.

Such a difference from Orson Scott Card’s masterpiece Ender’s Game, considered one of the all-time greatest sci-fi books written (and I agree!). The surprise twist at the climax and the completely unexpected ending blew me away. Yet, I could say it was the best (and truly only) ending for the book, and entirely unpredictable. Continue Reading…

Outlining Your Novel for Success

Writers often need a lot of help and direction to write a novel. Even seasoned authors benefit by another set of eyes (preferably ones that are just as experienced) on their scenes. Having done dozens (perhaps hundreds) of scene outline critiques, I can attest that every novel outline, regardless of how carefully crafted, needs tweaking.

Even if you know what scenes might make up a strong story, it’s still not easy to tell if you have all the “right ones” and in the right places. I love having others take a look and throw suggestions at me, to help me make my story better.

That’s what my scene outline critique process is all about. If you’re in the embryonic stages of crafting your story or have already completed a full draft, I’d like to encourage you to get a scene outline critique.

One of the biggest problems I see as a copyeditor and writing coach is weak scenes. Scenes with no point to them. Scenes structured badly. Boring scenes, dragging scenes, repetitive scenes.

Scenes are the pieces we string together to create a whole overarching story, but all too often writers include many scenes that just don’ work and shouldn’t be in their novel. Continue Reading…

3 Powerful Cinematic Techniques for Novelists

Readers will often stop reading before they finish the first page of your story. While this has always been true, in this fast-paced age that foments impatience, it’s even more true.

If a writer doesn’t deliver what a reader hopes for on that first page, it’s going to be tough to convince the reader to stick around for the whole chapter—let alone the whole book.

There are a lot of things needed on a first page of a novel or short story. And while it’s not a hard-and-fast rule that all these elements have to show up on page 1, the more elements a writer includes, the better.

This, of course, is going to vary a lot. And if a writer is starting with a prologue or some scene that doesn’t introduce the protagonist, that makes a difference as well. But the overall objective, regardless of opening scene, isn’t going to change. And that is to engage the reader. Continue Reading…

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