Writing Tips – Effective Scene Changes (Transitions)

This is post #25 of 26 in the series “Writing Tips For Authors & Bloggers”

Writing Tips – Effective Scene Changes (Transitions)

Most new writers have problems with scene changes (transitions). A smooth scene transition will encourage your readers to keep reading, whereas a sudden scene change can jolt your reader out of the story.

Transitions

What connects one scene to the next? A transition, which can be either a word or sentence that links one scene to the next. If you want to connect sentences, use transitional words, to connect scenes employ the use of transitional phrases or sentences.

The Purpose of Transitions

Transitions move your story forward. A sign of poor use of transitions would be if your reader gets lost in your story or novel, and needs to go back to the start and re-read what you had written earlier. This may be caused by other problems too, but poorly executed scene changes are often at fault. Quick scene changes, without the proper use of transitional phrases, can leave your readers wondering where the story is heading.

If you use transitions well, you will inspire confidence in your readers. They will know they can trust that your characters will stay connected to the story. Even if your story has muliple POV’s (point of view) those reading will be assured that you’ll come back to the other characters at some point further on. You won’t leave any character lost in the forest, or lying hurt and bleeding for too long. There will be a closure to their particular thread.

Have you ever read a novel that was written in real-time? Probably not. There are always instances in your characters life which do not need to be chronicled; for example, the seven hours spent sleeping; trips to the bathroom; the days or weeks in your story when nothing much happens to them. Transitions come to your rescue, they aid you in moving your characters either forward in time or to new locations.

Author’s Responsibility to their Readers

It is best to wait until your novel or story is finished to add and adjust transitions and scene changes. Start at the beginning and read over the beginning of every scene change, working your way through scenes and chapters. Are your scene changes clearly identified?

Just as you do your best to use correct punctuation, spelling and follow the rules of grammar when writing, you should also endeavor to clearly identify all scene changes. People will not read your novel if it is poorly punctuated, words are misspelled, or there are gaping holes in your plot. They won’t continue reading it if you mishandle scene changes either.

Clearly Setting the Scene

One idea for making sure the scene change is clearly marked is to describe your character and their surroundingsin the opening paragraph.

Bob Mayer (author and writing instructor) described one technique for doing this:

“When you start a new chapter or change perspective, you have to quickly (in first two paragraphs usually) orient the reader as to:

-Where is the locale?

-When in the timeline is this, with relation to the previous

scene?

-What is the point of view, and if it is a character’s, which character?

-Who is here?

Answering those questions “sets” the scene.”

You can also use a brief narrative to set the scene. You can use your character’s thoughts to show the reader how they felt about the previous scene, or their thoughts about what is to happen.

Visual Scene Dividers

Visual dividers are less often used for quick scene changes or when you switch the story to another character’s perspective.

The standard way to mark a scene break in your manuscript, so your editor or publisher will know there is a scene break, is with one #. These signs don’t remain in the published manuscript, they’re usually replaced by either more white space or a specific graphic break.

Was Your Scene Transition Successful?

If you can ask someone to read the section of writing in question and formulate a plot summary for it you can soon learn whether your scene transitions were successful. If all the elements in the series of connected scenes are included in the summary, you have nothing to worry about. However, if it is difficult for the reader to summarize the section, parts remain a blur, or they had to refer to the beginning of the chapter, or reread another earlier scene to make sense of the summary, you may need to look at your use of transition.