Questions to Ask When Editing Scenes

by Stephanie Morrill

Stephanie writes young adult contemporary novels and is the creator of GoTeenWriters.com. Her novels include The Reinvention of Skylar Hoyt series (Revell) and the Ellie Sweet books (Playlist). You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and check out samples of her work on her author website including the free novella, Throwing Stones.

Every writer is different, so maybe it helps some people when they hear the advice that, "Every scene should have a beginning, middle, and end." That just confuses my poor, simple brain. Maybe it's the pantser in me, I don't know. For whatever reason, I work better with lists.

Scenes come in all shapes and sizes. In a first draft, I write my scenes by feel. I go into it knowing what my goal is, and I frequently know what my character's goal is, but I usually don't know more than that. I don't pay attention to how long the scene is, I just write until it feels done, and I try to find something snappy, poignant, or "I must turn the page to find out what happens next" to end on, but sometimes I don't even do that in a first draft.

It's when I'm editing that I start asking questions like these:

How does this scene impact the plot? If I cut it, would it matter?

I've found this is the best place to start. Otherwise I might spend a lot of time editing a scene and then deciding I don't need it at all.

Can I make this scene work harder for me?

I like to ask this question next because sometimes in my first drafts a scene only accomplishes one thing when it could easily take care of two or three if I just use my brain a bit. 

I'm going to use a scene from my novella Throwing Stones as an example. I like using my own stuff because I don't mind critiquing it, I know the thought process I went through (rather than presuming what another writer must have been thinking), and this particular book of mine is a free download on my website so it's easy and cheap for you if you want to see the whole thing.

When I considered the second scene of my first chapter, I needed it to communicate several things to the reader that are important to the story:

• Abbie works hard to be a good student, but her life is very hectic.
• It introduces her older sister, Skylar, and tells us she's getting married in 2 weeks.
• Abbie feels jealous of the life her sister is living.
• Skylar encourages Abbie to wear something nicer to dinner. Abbie thinks she's being bossy, but in the next chapter we'll learn that Skylar was trying to help out her little sister.

Even though the scene is short (472 words) I'm able to accomplish a lot. Which is critical to the success of a 16,000 word novella.

Am I telling it from the right point of view (POV)?

This is a moot point in most of my stories (all my published books have only one point of view character) but it's a very important question if you have multiple point of view characters. The guideline for deciding this is asking who has the most at stake in this scene? Or another way to phrase that is, who has the most to gain or lose?

Sometimes this question is very simple to answer but not always. Another issue you might face is that sometimes a character is suffering too much to be a good point of view character. Say your book has two point of view characters. They're both at a funeral for character A's mother and character B is here to support her. While Character A clearly has more at stake here, you might find she's too ensconced with grief to make for an effective POV character and that character B will give the reader a clearer picture.

Did I arrive late?

Just like the age-old writing advice of, "Start your story in the middle of the action," your scenes should each start that way as well. Something should already be happening.

This is how the second scene of Throwing Stones starts:

“Abbie!” From the bottom of the stairs, my sister somehow manages to groan and yell my name at the same time. “We’re gonna be late!” 

I flip my textbook page. “I’m coming!”

“You said that five minutes ago.” Skylar does nothing to hide the irritation in her voice.

She sounds so much like mom, I feel like a kid again.

I slide a foot into my flip-flop as I skim several more sentences. “This time I really am!”

In my early writing days, I might have chosen to start it like this:

After I fed Owen a snack, I put on the T.V. for him so I could study for the next day's test. I had been studying for several hours when I heard my sister come in the front door. In about fifteen minutes, I bet she would be harping at me to get ready for dinner with the Ross family. Sure enough, it wasn't long before she yelled, "Abbie!" up the stairs.

Do you see how much more effective and intriguing it is to start with the action of Abbie's sister yelling for her? While example number two certainly gives us more information and answers more questions right away, it isn't as interesting to read.

Do I help provide context for my readers? (Who, what, when, where, and why)

Once you've found the right action for starting your scene, you need to give your reader context as quick as you can. That means answering the who, what, when, where, and why of your scene. Who is there? What is happening? When is this taking place? Where are we? And why are we here?

Here are the next few lines of that scene in Throwing Stones:

I slide a foot into my flip-flop as I skim several more sentences. “This time I really am!”

From downstairs, I hear the muffled voices of Skylar and Owen. Then Owen yells, “Mommy? Where are my light-up shoes?”

“Don’t you want your nice shoes?” Skylar says. “To go with your nice shirt?”

“No. I want my light-up ones.” The duh is implied at the end of his sentence.

“Hey, Owen, let’s wear your nice shoes tonight, okay?” I call as I uncap a highlighter. “It’s a special night for Aunt Skylar.”

As are many nights.

Owen thunders up the stairs to his room, retrieves his black loafers, and runs back downstairs. And during this, I manage to read another two paragraphs.

“Oh, pal, you look so handsome,” Skylar says in the soft-hearted voice she only uses with Owen. Louder she adds, “And I bet your mother looks beautiful.”

I groan, mark my spot in the book, and clomp downstairs.

Let's see how I did with providing context in the first 200 words of my scene:

Who is there?: Abbie, Skylar, and Owen

What is happening?: Abbie is trying to study, Skylar is trying to get to dinner on time, and Owen is enduring a wardrobe change.

When is this taking place?: The last scene was Abbie picking Owen up from school. Here Abbie refers to wearing his nice shoes "tonight" so the reader can piece together that this is after school but before an evening event.  

Where are we?: A house. It doesn't state that Abbie is in her room, but she's studying upstairs and Owen goes past her in the hallway to his room at one point, so most readers would probably (correctly) assume she's in her room.

Why are we here?: Abbie is upstairs trying to get some peace and quiet to study. Skylar is downstairs trying to get everyone out the door. Owen goes back and forth.

Do I leave early and give my reader a reason to come back?

As soon as I've accomplished my objective with a scene, I want to get out of there. Even if it's not the end of a chapter, but just the end of a scene, I always try to end with something snappy, reflective, poignant, or question-provoking. Here's the close of this scene from Throwing Stones:

Skylar glances at Owen and bites her lower lip. “Which I appreciate. I just would suggest that you go upstairs and put on, like, that orange silk dress or something.”

Gosh, she’s bossy. I can’t wait for her to get married and get out of my hair.

“I’m not. Changing. My clothes.” I take Owen’s hand and stalk out the front door.

The next scene opens with the three of them in the car driving to dinner, so I could have made the choice to keep it all as one big scene. I liked ending here because it's more interesting to me than details like Abbie grabbing her purse and Owen getting his booster seat to ride in Skylar's car, etc. We end with a clear shot of Abbie's attitude and mood going into the evening, and it sets up the next scene nicely.

Any questions about scenes that I can answer? And don't forget your contest entry needs to be turned in on Wednesday!