Good tips. For my money, the important thing is that every scene has a strong ending. Some kind of emotional beat, or resolution, or tantalizing lack of resolution... so the reader's brain knows it's OVER. Sometimes when a scene seems out of joint, it's not that scene's fault at all; it's because the last scene refused to go home and now it's just standing around awkwardly.
That's a really good point, I'd never considered that but you're absolutely right about overlap from a previous scene. I love the idea of a scene standing around awkwardly, that speaks to me 😂
This video, along with the one about time passing, and the short about not opening with weather have been so helpful. I didn't realize how guilty I was until I copied and pasted the first couple of sentences of all my chapters and scenes together in one document. It was obvious how much I had overused poor transitions to show time passing as well as weather. Thanks so much for this! These are the tips I never find in writing craft books but that scream 'beginner mistakes!
Thank you so much! I love hearing that people have my content useful. If it’s any consolation, I often find myself still making these errors too, but at least this way they don’t get through the second draft. I think my niche is ‘writing tips that are hard to define but useful’ 😂
So far in my WIP, most of my scene transitions happen with chapter breaks. Anything that transitions inside those chapters, I just gloss over quickly with narration. Maybe as I get further in, this tactic will change, but I feel like it's working for me so far. And when I do chapter break scene transitions, I always start the chapter establishing the new time and location.
Hey if it works for your story, it works. This is just one way to look at it. It depends a lot on the length of chapters too I think, if there's no need for multiple scenes within each chapter, you can just go from one to the other no problem, absolutely 🙂
@@KierenWestwoodWriting Currently at least my chapters are not terribly long, about 4 pages in a Google Doc. As the plot takes off, though, I suspect they're going to start getting longer. We'll see!
Fuck me! Genius! I think I just felt my synapses fire. Man, what a badass. That is exactly the example I needed and also the bad ones were most encouraging.
Very useful technique. Most scenes I write tend to be in present tense, so they tend to flow into one another without a need for transitions. But I have been experimenting about having a connected thought, line, image, or idea that connects a transition between two respective pov characters. With my current work, I'll be looking for that besides using section breaks (since I'm thinking of some occurring mid-scene of another character, but returning back to the first character when the other's scene is over). Again, this won't work for every story, and it does depend on the plot. But if it works well for it, I would go for it.
Good tips. For my money, the important thing is that every scene has a strong ending. Some kind of emotional beat, or resolution, or tantalizing lack of resolution... so the reader's brain knows it's OVER. Sometimes when a scene seems out of joint, it's not that scene's fault at all; it's because the last scene refused to go home and now it's just standing around awkwardly.
That's a really good point, I'd never considered that but you're absolutely right about overlap from a previous scene. I love the idea of a scene standing around awkwardly, that speaks to me 😂
This video, along with the one about time passing, and the short about not opening with weather have been so helpful. I didn't realize how guilty I was until I copied and pasted the first couple of sentences of all my chapters and scenes together in one document. It was obvious how much I had overused poor transitions to show time passing as well as weather. Thanks so much for this! These are the tips I never find in writing craft books but that scream 'beginner mistakes!
Thank you so much! I love hearing that people have my content useful. If it’s any consolation, I often find myself still making these errors too, but at least this way they don’t get through the second draft. I think my niche is ‘writing tips that are hard to define but useful’ 😂
A subtle and intentional way to add more skill and beauty to writing. Thanks for this tip!
Thank you so much, I really appreciate that 😊
So far in my WIP, most of my scene transitions happen with chapter breaks. Anything that transitions inside those chapters, I just gloss over quickly with narration. Maybe as I get further in, this tactic will change, but I feel like it's working for me so far. And when I do chapter break scene transitions, I always start the chapter establishing the new time and location.
Hey if it works for your story, it works. This is just one way to look at it. It depends a lot on the length of chapters too I think, if there's no need for multiple scenes within each chapter, you can just go from one to the other no problem, absolutely 🙂
@@KierenWestwoodWriting Currently at least my chapters are not terribly long, about 4 pages in a Google Doc. As the plot takes off, though, I suspect they're going to start getting longer. We'll see!
>> Finally, someone explains this process in a clear manner.
Thanks so much for saying so, I really appreciate that :)
Fuck me! Genius! I think I just felt my synapses fire. Man, what a badass. That is exactly the example I needed and also the bad ones were most encouraging.
Thanks so much! Glad it was helpful :)
Very useful technique. Most scenes I write tend to be in present tense, so they tend to flow into one another without a need for transitions. But I have been experimenting about having a connected thought, line, image, or idea that connects a transition between two respective pov characters. With my current work, I'll be looking for that besides using section breaks (since I'm thinking of some occurring mid-scene of another character, but returning back to the first character when the other's scene is over). Again, this won't work for every story, and it does depend on the plot. But if it works well for it, I would go for it.
Very informative video good sens of humour too 😅
holy shit. thank you. exactly what i was looking for
Excellent :D Glad I could help.
Cool vid, good intro
Thank you ☺️ learning video editing!
@@KierenWestwoodWriting you're doing a good job, subscribed to your channel
This is all great advice and all but...
Did Martin see The Matrix?
He did, and he wrote a 12000 word essay on how it could really happen
V good video!
☺️📖