#scene development

Good question! 

Varying the beginning of your story:

I often lean into the same beginnings too, so instead of feeling bad about it - I try to set the stage 

What sense do I want to draw attention too for the reader to feel connected to the story ( sight, sound, touch - these are the ones I gravitate to ) 

Where are we - inside, outside, what stage are you designing for the reader to visualize ( sometimes it’s not even necessary, but it helps with grounding )

Do you want to start with dialogue or emotion, either are good and can help set the tone

what is happening, what actions are occurring to tell the reader what the characters are doing -- actions tell us urgency, intentions, direction 

Activities in the world of your story: 

I like to make my activities relate to the characters I’m writing for - so think about them and you’ll come up with some ideas 

You don’t always have to start at the beginning - start in the middle or right at the end ( it’s like you are building a sandwich, let your mind walk through the steps and start wherever you find the most natural for the story ) 

writing from or with the character perspective: each character has a set of activities they often do - the more you know the character, the more activities you can pull from 

writing from the reader perspective:  what do they do in this world and then pull from those activities they might be involved in ( adventurer, researcher, knight, Fatui, etc. ) 

it’s really up to you -- there is no wrong answer! 

Hey, that sounds like one of my fandoms! Yeah, character introductions can feel hard to do without sounding contrived. I end up with default scenes (usually also a rooftop), and have to change them up later.

When choosing the best place to introduce two characters, follow these basic criteria.

Decide what kind of tone you want the scene to have and thus a setting to reflect that.

Decide which setting can tell the most about both characters.

Determine whether any of your choices seem too unlikely, and if you’d enjoy attempting them anyway.

Here are some quick suggestions!

Everyday Settings

The grocery store, the post office, the bank, crossing the street, in a park, at the laundromat, in a parking lot/garage, a waiting room, walking the dog, picking up or dropping off the kids, getting gas, picking up takeout, etc.

Fanfic/TV Trope Settings

A bar, a coffee shop, a sit-down restaurant, a book or record shop, around the office where they work, when their two professions cross paths, at a mutual acquaintance’s birthday party, at some big fancy bash, at the canon characters’ trademark hangout, taking shelter during a freak weather event, at school where they study/work, on public transport, at the airport, at a convention, at group therapy or an AA style meeting, on an elevator, etc.

Dramatic/Perilous Settings

An alleyway mugging, a convenience store robbery, a kidnapping, a hospital emergency room, the lobby of a law office, a police station, an emergency evacuation or drill, a car accident, during a protest, etc.

Interesting, Uncommon Settings

The vet, a relative’s sports game or graduation, on a video game server, online forum or social media site, town meeting, after hours at a closed business, at a food stand/truck, at a fair, at an art show or public performance, at a specialty store, at a cemetary, at a religious event that one or both of them observes, at a soup kitchen or other charity/nonprofit, during a lengthy traffic stop, on a hiking trail, at the DMV or social services, a care home for the elderly or mentally handicapped, etc.

Essentially…

practice being open-minded about places they’d meet. It’s easy, especially in fanfic, to get stuck imagining your characters in only two or three settings. Unless they’re agoraphobic and hide from humanity, people go places (or we used to, lol).

Hope this helps!

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Perhaps you’ve got this death scene all planned out.  It’s tragic, it’s sad, and you’re sure your readers are going to bawl their eyes out.

But hold up.  A death scene isn’t just one scene - a tragically beautiful death scene involves a good portion of the story whether you realize it or not.  And it might be a tragic death that gets your reader to fling the book across the room and screech in pain like a pterodactyl, but if it was a character who died for the sake of dying, well, your reader’s going to learn to not trust what you’ve written.

The goal of this post is to give some tips when writing death scenes . . . and when you should probably avoid a death scene.

What was the purpose of the death?  Will this death serve a purpose later on?  Does it act as a motivation for the main character?  Does it get rid of an obstacle?  Open the door to discovering secrets?  Or does it only serve to play on the reader’s emotions and the death doesn’t actually add anything to the story?  If it’s the last one, it’s probably best to skip the death.  If you’re looking to create an emotional response from your reader, you shouldn’t have to take drastic measures to do so.  If you’re trying to improve your writing, you should try to invoke emotion through the smaller things.  Improving that area will make the larger things, like a death, so much more emotional.

Were you trying to get rid of a character?  Got an annoying character and you used the advice “kill the darling” because that character just wasn’t contributing anything?  If a character outlived his or her usefulness, consider his/her importance throughout the story.  Was s/he that necessary, or could s/he be taken out completely?  Maybe another character could pick up the slack?  Chances are, if you’re not connecting with character, neither is the reader.  And by killing the character the reader’s response is going to be more along the lines of, “Finally. He could’ve just died at the beginning for all I cared.”

How much time have you spent developing the victim?  Maybe you spent hours and hours into this character - you know him from head to toe, even his favorite flavor of ice cream.  But just because you’ve got him that well developed doesn’t mean it’s well translated in the story.  Maybe he doesn’t have enough time with the reader.  Or maybe you haven’t developed him at all, either in the story or in your notes.  Why should this matter?  Because if you’re killing off a character who wasn’t developed or gave the readers no chance to connect with him, his death is going to be as emotional as the lawn being mowed.

Is the manner of death necessary?  Especially if it’s a character you’ve grown attached to, it’s highly tempting to give her the death you think she deserves: An epic death that features a lot of drama and action.  But a lot of the time epic deaths can go over the top and aren’t as emotionally effective.  Deaths that are simple are sometimes the more effective way.  Deaths don’t have a lot of flare and aren’t drawn out can send a reader reeling.  Drawing out a death can sometimes kill the moment (pun intended) and the character is dead to the reader before she’s actually dead.  Another effective method of death is the sudden death.  However, a sudden death should only be used in certain cases.  In the case of war death is going to happen suddenly all around the place.  But in other cases, try not to make every other character’s death sudden.  It starts to lose its shock appeal.  Sudden death also lacks any telltale evidence that indicates the character’s last moments.

Is this the final death?  Just as annoying, if not more so, than a death scene not done right is the character who just won’t stay dead.  I am not referring to immortal characters or characters where there is a reasonable explanation for why he or she won’t die.  I’m referring the deaths where the characters come back time and time again.  Perhaps he keeps faking his death.  Perhaps the other characters keep assuming she’s dead every time they see blood and she’s gone.  Perhaps the other characters keep bringing the victim back to life to the point where a meme is made out of him and the readers start to wonder why anyone would want to keep around someone whose main talent is finding a new way to die.  When death is tricked time and time again in your story, readers are going to learn not to care if someone dies.  They’re going to assume the character will come back, and even if the character doesn’t, they’ve already detached themselves emotionally from your story’s deaths that when they realize it, they’ll just say, “Oh. That’s too bad.”  If it’s a character that they like, they just might get mad that it was that character who remained permanently dead and not any of the others.

Have you lost count of the bodies?  If you’ve killed too many characters, even if it’s to drive the plot forward, death isn’t going to have the same effect.  It might seem nice to be the next George R. R. Martin, but is it necessary?  It may come to a point where readers stop caring for the characters’ well being because they’ve come to the realization that everyone’s going to die.

Tell us about a scene you’re most looking forward to writing in your current project.

I can think of a few coming up that I'm anticipating, both for their comedic amd character development value. As with other scenes, my goal is for these to stem from a combination of character personality differences and conflicting drives/motivations:

Jane's eventual reunion with Rufous after his stint with X'rhun as the gaelikitten's reluctant master

a continuation of the "fish out of water" theme with The Red Team in Ishgard

Saya guiding X'rhun through the Great Gubal Library