Part 5 - Endings That Spark Beginnings by CS Lakin

Today's post is the last in a 5 part series of articles by C.S. Lakin, our guest speaker for the upcoming CWOW Annual Writer's Workshop on January 25th, 2014. We hope you enjoy these invaluable tips.  If you want to hear more from C.S. Lakin on building your novels, scene by scene, pop over and register for the workshop and be sure to drop by C.S. Lakin's blog to learn more about this great writer!  

Endings That Spark Beginnings

I covered scene beginnings and middles over the last few weeks, so let’s look at endings. Just like beginnings, endings carry a special burden. The reader must be left with a feeling, like an aftertaste. So you need to stop and think. Just what feeling do you want the reader to have? Shock, sadness, warmth, confusion, curiosity? You want to keep in mind that the basic storytelling structure for a novel is action—reaction—action—reaction. Too many scenes end with a character experiencing something and then . . . it ends. We need to see how the character reacts to what has just happened. You don’t have to do this every time, and in some genres where plot is king (suspense/thrillers), you may often end with the building exploding and you have no idea if your character just died. But as a general rule, you want to be with your character and see their reaction, feeling, or response—even if just told in one line—to what has just happened.

Endings Need to Feel Like Endings

A scene ending needs to feel just like that—an ending. There must be a sense of completion, even if the reader is left hanging. I’m not sure how to explain that, but even if the POV character is left confused in the middle of something, the scene itself has to have a feeling of completeness in that the scene wholly accomplished its objective—leading you from one place to another, from one moment to another. The ending must leave the reader with a sense of anticipation and a desire to read on. Each ending, in essence, should spark a new beginning. That’s accomplished by giving the reader a piece of new plot information, presenting another clue, or revealing something moving or fascinating about the character. Again, moments don’t need to be big. They are powerful and impacting if they contain meaning for your character.

Two Types of Endings

There are basically two types of endings—plot endings and character endings. Plot endings might be cliffhangers or contain a new plot twist or reveal a clue. A character ending is more about insight. The reader now knows something more about your character, or you may have the character thinking about what just happened, or you may have some poignant dialog (even one line) or description (motif or metaphor) that your character ponders. Think about zooming in like a camera to your character’s thoughts and feelings. Or maybe zoom out to show a larger understanding your character now has for her life or her world. Moments of insight make for powerful endings.
This week, take a look at your scene endings and see if they wrap up the scene like the ending of a good book. If they just stop abruptly, think how you can create either a plot revelation or a character insight to end smoothly and leave the reader wanting more.

Part 4 - Muddle the Middle of Your Scenes by CS Lakin

Today's post is Part 4 in a 5 part series of articles by C.S. Lakin, our guest speaker for the upcoming CWOW Annual Writer's Workshop on January 25th, 2014. We hope you enjoy these invaluable tips.  If you want to hear more from C.S. Lakin on building your novels, scene by scene, pop over and register for the workshop and be sure to drop by C.S. Lakin's blog to learn more about this great writer! 

Muddle the Middle of Your Scenes

I went into detail about scene beginnings last week, and I’ll be spending a bit more time on scene structure since it’s so crucial and so often ignored. I talked about how scenes are mini novels and must have a beginning, middle, and end, and how each scene is like a promise to your reader that you are going to deliver something. And what you are going to deliver is revealed in the high moment near the end of the scene.

Middles

Just as middle scenes of a novel can slog along and sag, so too middles of a scene can drag or not go anywhere. Knowing your high moment will really help avoid that. One good way to have compelling middles is to work backward from your high moment. If you know, for example, that Mary thinks George has taken her out to dinner to propose, but the high moment reveals he’s breaking up with her, you can picture that instant of her being stunned and think how she is going to feel just before that. You want your character to change in some small way by the end of the scene, and so think how Mary feels ten, twenty, or thirty minutes before this shocking moment. How is she going to be feeling twenty minutes after? So you want to start the scene with her expectations and in the middle of action—either already at the restaurant or pretty close to being there. In your middle, you don’t want to spend a lot of time (or maybe even any time) driving there or getting your character from any one place to another. Don’t drag the middle by stretching time (unless you want to).

Complicate, Exacerbate

Middles of novels are where you up the stakes, complicate and confound your character, make things worse. You might add danger or reveal a surprise twist. A middle is the unveiling of the storyline. So in each scene, as you build to your moment, you want to do the same. Add complications, obstacles, twists. Maybe Mary’s car doesn’t start and she’s late meeting George at the restaurant, which adds to her anxiety. Maybe Mary gets a phone call right before she leaves that complicates the subplot regarding her friend who’s going through a divorce. That can enrich the scene as Mary thinks how lucky she is to have George and how he’s going to propose to her in a few minutes. If you are going to throw a twist into your scene, such as George breaking up with Mary instead of proposing to her, you can use the middle to set up Mary’s expectations of one outcome, only to have a reversal at the high point. Reversals are terrific, and if you put in at least three things leading up to them that indicate the opposite outcome, they will be powerful.

This week, take a look at not just your first scene’s middle but those of random scenes in your novel. Find the high points and see if you have developed the middle so that it is leading to that moment and complicating things. See if you can add in expectations that imply the opposite outcome. If your character expects something bad to happen, have three things in the middle that imply her instincts will prove right. Then when that bad thing doesn’t happen, it will pack a punch.

The Defining of a Scene by C.S. Lakin

C.S. Lakin, our guest speaker for the upcoming CWOW Annual Writer's Workshop on January 25th, 2014 has given us permission to repost some articles from her blog. Here is the first in a 5 post series. Look for new posts on Mondays, Wednesday's and Fridays and be sure to drop by C.S. Lakin's blog for more great writing tips!

The Defining of a Scene

While we’re on this multi-monthlong discussion of all the essential elements needed in your first few pages, I want to take a little break to insert some thoughts about scene structure. I can attest that the biggest flaw I see in the manuscripts that I critique and edit is poor scene structure. I don’t think many writers have fully explored the topic to the extent that they plan out a scene with enough understanding and craft tools to be able to really make each scene the most powerful and effective that it can be. Often scenes seem to be thrown together, starting in a place and in a manner that really doesn’t work. And so, since each scene is like a mini novel (or should be), I want to talk a bit about them, and particularly about scene beginnings, since they parallel your novel beginning in many ways.

How Would You Define a Scene?

If someone asked you to define what a scene is, what would you say? If you think about it, it’s not easy to define. We tend to know when a scene works and when it doesn’t. Here are some elements that make up a scene that I’ve found in books on scene writing:

• The sum of myriad elements that work together [hmm, that’s a bit vague]
• It starts and ends with a character arriving and leaving [sometimes, but not often]
• It can be a single location with many people coming and going
• It gives the sensation that a character is “trapped” in this moment and must go through it

I’m not all that ecstatic about these points. They don’t really tell what a scene is. I mentioned in an earlier post that I like how Jordan Rosenfeld defines a scene in her book Make a Scene: “Scenes are capsules in which compelling characters undertake significant actions in a vivid and memorable way that allows the events to feel as though they are happening in real time.”

What Is Real Time?

Well, it’s not back story. I already gave my lengthy post about leaving back story out of your story, so let’s focus on this concept of “real time.” Too many manuscripts start off with either pages of narrative to set up the book or start with maybe a catchy (or not) first paragraph or two that puts the protagonist right in a scene in real time—meaning they are experiencing something that, for them, is happening right then. Not a memory, not a flashback, not even them thinking about what is happening to them right now. But after these short moments of establishing the character in a “happening” scene, the author lapses into telling the reader important things they should know [read: back story]. Even if you are going to go heavily into your character’s head, you need that character to be doing it “here and now” in some sort of “capsule” (as Rosenfeld says) that is unfolding in the moment. It’s not all that complicated, but writers really need to resist the urge to stop the moment or veer off elsewhere.

Be Here Now

So, if you’ve pulled on your reins and disciplined yourself to construct that opening scene with your protagonist in a moment in real time, you now have the structure to show that character undertaking significant actions in a vivid and memorable way. By now you have your themes and MDQs all worked out, and you’ve figured out how to hint at these, along with showing your character’s glimpse of greatness and core need. You’ve set up their persona that they show to the world, and you’ve hinted at their true essence underneath.
Are you starting to feel a bit overwhelmed? You just might be. Not a whole lot of authors can whip up a first scene intuitively and off the cuff that contains every little element needed. And that’s why first page checklist  is really helpful. Once you rough in that first scene, go through and make sure you’ve got all the bases covered. Which begs the question . . .

Just How Long Should a Scene Be?

I’ve actually read articles and book chapters that suggest certain numbers of pages, and it’s not that formulaic. Genre can be a factor, since a fast-action thriller may have short, terse chapters whereas a thoughtful literary work may have long ones. The real answer, which may not be so helpful, is that a scene should be as long as it needs to be (the same is true for a novel’s length). You determine the length of the scene by writing it and making sure it reaches its objective. And once it’s done that, it should end. And next week I’ll go more into that “objective,” because it is the key point to constructing scenes.
This week, look at some great scenes in your favorite novels. Jot down how the scene opens, how long it is, where it ends, and note if the character is in an encapsulated moment that unfolds in real time and that reveals something significant. Great scenes will do just that. Feel free to share in the comments!