5 Questions to Ask for Stronger Scenes

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

If you have trouble plotting, ask these five questions in every scene. 

I've always been a natural plotter. That doesn't mean I was always good at it, mind you, just that figuring out what my characters had to do rarely left me scratching my head.

I think it's because I typically think in "What has to happen in this scene?" terms. And the action, the "what happens" is driven by a character with goal. Create a problem, toss in something that has to happen, add a protagonist who needs something, and voila, you have a plot.

In basic terms, a plot is a series of events that allow you to illustrate your story. It's simple, yet often difficult, which is why so many writers struggle with it.

As you start your scene, your protagonist will have a goal. It'll probably be a story goal, because the whole point is to move the story forward, right? But maybe it's a smaller goal, or a internal goal, or a unconscious goal. Maybe it's not anything they want, but something you as the author wants.

Continue ReadingWritten by Janice Hardy. Fiction-University.com