#transition scenes

[veirsewrites]

Got tagged by @bringer-if !

Though I feel like I don’t write enough to know this yet 😅

5 Things You Never Get Tired of Writing

1. Emotional reunions: I really loved writing the unsure tension, sadness and guilt ridden emotions with Arlo/Aida and MC reuniting. How unsure and confusing it can be.

2. Pain in a fluffy way: I liked writing the prologue and remembering A flashback in a kinda an abstract way. I was trying to be fancy with the words and I think it worked out.

3. Raw grief: I actually deleted some parts of this from Eddie’s flashback (spoilers?) because I thought it was too much. And maybe I only like it because it was therapeutic for me lol. But I also wrote it with not a lot of description and for me- I loved that, while grief is a tumultuous thing, it also slaps you out of no where and has you keeling over. Sometimes a single word has the most effect.

4. Romantic Confessions/Outbursts: I’ve written some of these already and holy shittt I make myself blush and tear up. I don’t like writing fluffy but I do like emotionally charged, somber, maybe angry and raw confessions.

5. Leading up to sex: As everyone knows, it’s the journey, not the destination. And I have written some of these scenes already. But the emotional dynamics with this can be sooo enthralling and powerful.

[incandescent-creativity]

Transition Scenes Are Important

So important. 

Why are they so important? I’m glad you asked.

“Transition chapters” or “transition scenes” are what I call those in-between times in the story. The parts that are in between the big Plot Points, in between the scenes that have lots of action and conflict. You know the ones I’m talking about–nothing is really happening, because your character has returned home for the day and is making dinner before going to sleep. Or they’re working their day job before they can put on the mask and go be a superhero.

These scenes are important to include for a few reasons!

They show your character being human. Sometimes it’s easy to let our OCs get overpowered, or to let them be go-go-going all the time. If you show them collapsing into bed tired, or you show them nursing wounds after a fight, it humanizes them. These scenes remind your reader, “Hey, these aren’t infallible, 2D characters. These are people, that you should care about.”

Pacing. If your story is all plot all the time, things can (and probably will) end up feeling really rushed. I know you’re excited about your story, but take a moment to sit back and let the story really draw itself out. Let things unfold slowly, instead of rushing ahead madly. I am guilty of rushing ahead madly, and am warning you from experience instead of from superiority: your story will be better if you remember to include a few down-time, transitionary scenes.

These scenes allow your reader a chance to breathe and relax. When you, the writer, take a step back, you are providing an opportunity for your character to recover from whatever hell you just put them through. And while this is important, it allows your readers to relax, too! They will sit back, let out a deep breath they hadn’t realized they were holding, and when they get to the end of the transition scene? They will be ready to dive right in again.

Including these scenes will boost word count, too. Whether you’re doing NaNoWriMo, trying to flesh out your story and bump that count up, or anything else, the equation is simple. More scenes = high word count. And when you’re running out of high-action, high-conflict scenes, adding in some transition scenes can balance the scales.

They include scenes for your characters to interact when there’s not super high stakes. High stakes are great, but some of the best characterization happen in the down times. I wrote a chapter once where my characters were resting after traveling, and I ended up writing a chapter full of puns (excerpt here). I never would’ve written that fun scene without taking a moment to pause and include a transition chapter.

So they might suck to write sometimes, but these transition chapters/scenes are really important! Consider going back through your work and looking for places to add them in; I know I sure had to.

If there’s ever something you want to see me post about, you want to ask me about my writing, you want to ask me for help with one of your own writing problems, or you just want to say hi, feel free to send in an ask! I’d love to hear from you.

[she-who-fights-and-writes]

So I've been working on my NaNo story, and I have several major plot points written out, as well as some smaller things to help with character development and such. However, I'm having a hard time connecting these scenes without cutting to their next destination. I feel like I've overused having them have generic Q&A sessions or playing road trip games with each other. Any advice?

Whenever there’s space between scenes, you have to make sure that you don’t fill the gaps with fruitless conversation that tells the readers nothing or trivial tasks that wouldn’t need to be described otherwise.

My suggestion is that, if it’s a really big difference in time between one event and the next, put a line break.

You mentioned a road trip? Perhaps they stop for gas or at a diner and something happens. A wallet stolen, a phone lost, a character seeing that bitch Stacy from high school with her new hubby, a character recalling something from their past about a time their great aunt’s cousin’s son’s friend’s former roommate took them to a place like that.

Hope this helped, and sorry about the long wait!

[witterprompts]

do you have any tips for writing journeys through a forest that last several days without being redundant, OR skipping over the whole thing, because I'm trying to work two characters growing closer together into it, but there's only so many ways you can say 'they continued through the forest'

//I personally tend to skip over travel scenes, because I find them boring to write when nothing is happening to advance the plot. However, I think they can be done in ways that make it entertaining to both the writer and the reader.

Including small bits and pieces during the travel;

You don’t have to include the full journey through the forest. You can plop in a nice scene or two where A and B grow closer together. Whether it’s an action packed scene of them versus some sort of evil, or if they’re hanging out having a deep conversation while riding along on their horses. I’m sure you’re aware that time passes by awfully quickly if you’re having a fun conversation.

However, I did scope around for some other places that might help! Here, here, here, and here.

[kindnessisstillhere]

Transition Scenes

I want to talk about transformations,

Makeovers that change the person,

Realisations that change everything,

But no transition scene manages that.

It's just a movement from a to be.

Yet still all of life we're changing, transitioning,

Not often between genders but between selfs,

Changing as we learn and experience.

No camera lets us skip travel time here,

But if it did, wouldn't that just skip all of life?

[cjjasp]

#DecemberWriter – Scene Composition and Transitions #writing

When I sit down to write a scene, my mind sees it as if through a camera, as if my narrative were a movie. The character and their actions are framed by the setting and environment. In so many ways, a writer’s imagination is like a camera, and as they write that first draft, the narrative unfolds like a movie. Directors will tell you they focus the scenery (set dressing) so it frames the action.…

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[cjjasp]

Transitions – bookend scenes that determine pacing #writing

In the previous post, we talked about scene framing. Scenes are word pictures, portraits of a moment in a character’s life framed by the backdrop of the world around them. Everything depicted in that scene has meaning. But the scenes themselves are pictures within the larger picture of the story arc. Think of the story arc as a blank wall. We place the scenes on that blank wall in the order we…

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[cjjasp]

Scenes, pacing, and chapter length #amwriting

Chapter breaks are transitions. I have found that chapter breaks fall naturally at certain places as I write. I’ve discussed this before, but I’m always happy to repeat myself. In my opinion, chapters can be the length they need to be. When we commit to writing daily, our writing style grows and changes. When I began writing, some chapters totaled over 4,000 words. As my writing style evolved,…

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