I suspect this is a subject of importance for all writers, but it's not something I've given much thought to until now. I have been writing in a fairly stream-of-consciousness style, and the timeline proceeds linearly at some times, and other times jumps back and forth within a scene (rather like Faulkner's style in The Sound and the Fury) to go back to a past incident relevant to the present scene. This is totally raw stuff - as it should be for NaNo! - and I tend to finish a scene when I have run out of things for the characters to say and learn. The editing comes later.
However, I notice at times I have real trouble with deciding when I should have a scene transition/change and how abrupt or gradual it should be. It has not been something I have focussed on in my reading to date, but I suspect I will pay more attention to it from now on. :D
My MC is diagnosed as schizophrenic, but there is more going on. However, the nature of her diagnosis makes it easy for me to get away with abrupt scene changes (which feels a bit like cheating, but it's within the realms of reason for this character). One minute she's somewhere answering an email. Next minute she "comes to" on a ferry crossing.
It got me to wondering that if I *wasn't* writing about a schizoid-type character, what the hell would I do? You can't linger in a scene and watch the person cleaning their teeth, washing their contacts, etc, because the reader would die of boredom, but how do you handle scene transitions for normal characters doing more or less normal things in the moments between the moments of conflict that advance the story?
I realize this is a big question, but I'm just interested to hear people's views - and whether it's even an issue in lit fic - especially when a lot of folk are using stream-of-consciousness type narration.
Do you have favourite authors who, in your opinion, handle scene changes/transitions well? Do you have techniques you like to use for scene transitions? Or does it change for every single scene you write?
I know this is an issue more for editing, going forward, but I would like to think about it a little too, while writing the "raw stuff".
Cheers,
Jane
----------
59,398 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 17 01
I don't know if I can really say I transist well XD
I've always thought I was sort of a cheater too.
I will write the scene, put in all the action and then usually I'll end on some kind of dialogue that forces my character to either respond with the IT line or reflect on whatever has been said.
Either way there is always a sentence that will hit me and I'll say to myself "this is it" and then I'll space and do my *** and continue on with whatever. The line would sort of be like my "that's all folks" for that particular scene.
Don't know if that helped at all, sorry!
36,159 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 17 36
For some reason it isn't a problem for me. But that's probably because I start with an outline: whenever I come to a good stopping place, it's time for a new chapter. I like to change up how I begin chapters: dialogue one time, and then exposition. But I don't think that you should worry about it too much...it's nanowrimo, for crying out loud.
66,103 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 18 53
I was taught that a scene is "a unit of change." So until some type of change or shift occurs, the scene hasn't ended. And once the shift occurs, we can readily go on to the next scene.
There's also that little bit of summary versus scene. I can do a lot of summarizing in the next scene about what happened in the scene before if the reader needs to know, but the reader will assume the character has brushed his/her teeth, etc. if I just say they got ready for bed. I don't have to take them through every brush stroke.
I often think about how to end the scene so that the reader wants to know more - not telling it all in a scene, but showing the shift and then ending rather abruptly so the reader wonders "What happened to Joe's teeth? Did they get brushed or not?"
Now I sound like I know what I'm doing, but in fact this is a key question - when to break a scene. I will figure it out in editing.
Hope that helps even remotely.
~ Nita
50,381 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 22 48
Either way there is always a sentence that will hit me and I'll say to myself "this is it" and then I'll space and do my *** and continue on with whatever. The line would sort of be like my "that's all folks" for that particular scene.
Don't know if that helped at all, sorry!
That makes a lot of sense actually. It's how I work. I am letting the characters guide me, and I don't have an outline except a loose one for the next few scenes in my head. As you say, there's usually some "profound" sentence (go me! LOL) or a particularly witty piece of dialogue (actually you can read the cynicism right? I'm doing okay, but the transitions are not "gold" yet. That will come in January... as I'm sure I'll still be writing the first draft in December.) and I think... good place to leap to the next scene.
I have to ask though - what is the "IT line"?
50,381 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 22 52
Thanks. I'm not fretting about it... just this intellectual curiosity that gets the better of me. I know - sounds suspiciously like the inner editor trying to get involved, but I feel like I've finally shorted them out of the circuit. This is just more of a "what do you guys get away with?" kind of query, and I think I'll be paying attention to what I read over the next while to see how other writers do it.
50,381 / 50,000
Nov 23, 2008 - 23 01
Now I sound like I know what I'm doing, but in fact this is a key question - when to break a scene. I will figure it out in editing.
Thanks, Nita, I guess that's what I was trying to work out. How do you write your transitions so any housekeeping gets done if need be, and for example, the scene finishes with "Joe got ready for bed and was out cold before the clock flashed 10pm.", and then next scene he's sitting in the diner with his new girlfriend, and she thinks, "Yuk, he didn't brush his teeth! What a slob!"
I guess I feel a bit of a dilemma to finish the "action". You know, if Joe has spent the evening drinking coffee and bewailing the state of the universe, I feel I either have to say something like: Joe thought, "With any luck the universe will collapse before I have to see Lena at tea tomorrow". Do I then need to say he went to bed, or you just assume that because in the next scene he's at the cafe with Lena. Or do you think he had a psychotic break and how did he get from A to B - did the universe actually shift time or something?
Okay, I know I'm overthinking, and there's no magic formula, but I guess I'm disturbed by the disjointed narrative I have. Should I just not give a damn, and trust my readers are smart enough to figure that Joe went to bed, and got the bus to the cafe, and damn it, didn't clean his teeth before bed? :)
Jane