Let’s talk about scenes. 

If a scene that you’re writing feels boring, your instinct might be to blame the writing.

It’s not vivid enough.

Not clever enough.

Not emotional enough.

Most of the time, the writing isn’t the real issue.

Before I go any further, let me start by saying that I HATE the idea of ‘writing rules.’ Every scene and every story has a life of its own, and what works well in one book or for one POV doesn’t work in another.

But, setting aside ideas of rules, a broken scene can typically come down to one of five possible culprits.

Here’s a quick way to diagnose the problem:

1. What does the POV character want right now?

I’m not talking about in the story or in that chapter, but what do they want in this exact moment? 

If the character wants something specific, that’s the engine for that scene. If the POV character is hanging around twiddling their thumbs, then the scene’s engine has to be something that happens to that character in that scene.

2. What stands in the way of that want?

This doesn’t have to be dramatic or explosive.

It can be:

– Another character

– New information

– A ticking clock

– An internal fear or belief

Or, it can be the aforementioned “thing” that happened to the POV character.

If there is no obstacle, there’s often no tension, and the scene feels flat.

3. What’s at stake in this moment, or what happens if the character fails?

What happens if the character doesn’t get what they want, or gets it in the wrong way?

If the answer is “well… nothing, really,” the scene has no stakes.

Even quiet scenes can have consequences: emotional, relational, or logistical. 

4. Does something change by the end of the scene?

By the final line of the scene, at least one of these should be different:

– The character’s knowledge

– The plan

– The relationship

– The emotional state

If everything is the same at the end as it was at the beginning, the scene CAN feel like a waste of time (but again, I hate writing rules, so there are exceptions to this, but it’s the exception, not the rule). 

5. Why does this scene exist here?

Ask yourself: Could this happen later? Earlier? Be summarized? Be deleted?

If yes, the scene probably needs sharpening or combining. 

The good news is you don’t need to cut the “boring” scenes. You just need to bring them to life, and you can do that by heightening or adding their desires (or motivations), resistance (things that cause problems for them), and risks/consequences.

Have I mentioned that I HATE rules around writing? Let me double underline the idea that not every single scene needs to have all of these things. But this checklist is good to keep in your back pocket and whip out when you have a blah scene and aren’t sure why it is weak. 

Hopefully, it comes in handy for that purpose.

Happy writing,

Alessandra