Switches For A Non-Working Scene

Sometimes, no matter how much we’ve planned, plotted, outlined, and written, a scene just doesn’t work how we want it to.

The trouble is, said scene is important. The book needs it, and you have to get it right. For when such occasions happen, here are a few options you can try to switch the scene up, and hopefully get it to where it needs to be.

Switches For A Non-Working SceneSwitch To A Different POV

If you’re writing a book with multiple point of view characters, try writing the cumbersome scene from the perspective of a different character.

Perhaps the side character processing everything from a distance will get the scene moving better than the MC. Or maybe your female main character will bring a different feel than the male main character.

If your book only has one POV character and you’re really stuck, try writing from another POV anyway. The exercise will be for your eyes only, but it may shake loose new ideas or a fresh perspective that you can add to the original scene to get it singing.

Switch Up The Acting/Reacting

If the scene involves your MC reacting to bad news and you’re just not pulling it off in the way you intend to, how would they be acting if they were delivering the bad news instead?

Switch up what the characters are doing, such as the winning ball being thrown by a team member over the MC. How would the scene play out then? What would change, and would it get your scene working? Give it a try!

Switch Up The Helpfulness

If you have a scene where your MC needs help from the other characters, but it’s just not reading right, try having the other character be non-helpful.

If, rather than finding sympathy for a situation, your MC was brushed off by everyone, how would that change the scene or the MC’s actions? Without the help they were expecting, would your MC take matters into their own hands, and would things be better or worse? Such a change could pivot your entire plot and revive your stuck scene.

Switch Up The Opening And Closing

Sometimes the scene may work in the middle, but the opening or the closing just aren’t cutting it. Switch them up and see if the shake-up works wonders.

Switch Up The Setting

There are lots of layers to a scene, and it’s not always the characters and what’s happening that’s the missing puzzle piece.

The setting of where the scene is taking place can have a big impact, after all, a scene where the MC is being stalked becomes more important and atmospheric if they’re in a dark, empty street, as opposed to a crowded park on a sunny summer day.

If your current scene is giving you grief, switch up the setting, or give it more detail to see if that helps.

Switch Up The Stakes

What’s a new complication that you can throw into the scene to get it back on track? If it feels like nothing is happening, or the urgency just isn’t there, switch up the stakes and add more drama.

Switch Up The Players

If you’ve looked at everything else in the scene, tweaked it to your heart’s content, and perfected it, but there’s still a missing element, check the players!

See which characters can be added or removed from the scene and how that alters or enhances the events. When you combine that suggestion with all or some of the others here, it should give you enough changes to get any non-working scene working again!

— K.M. Allan

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