by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I’m working on yet another attempt at a first draft of my first novel and I’m feeling pretty good. One thing I’ve started to get the hang of is the subtle ebb and flow of scenes.
There are, according to the book “Scene and Structure,” two types of things in a novel — a scene and a sequel. A scene is where some sort of event with a disaster happens at the end, while a sequel is sort of the event in the novel where people react to what just happened.
Once you figure out how to work out that ebb and flow on a structural level, then the story has a native groove to it that the reader can get into without even realizing. It’s a way of, if nothing else, modulating the pace of the story on a macro level.
Anyway, I have a huge amount of work ahead of me. But, for the time being, this story is really keeping me, the writer, entertained, which goes a long ways towards ensuring that I actually finish it. It’s going to be a few months before I’m able to finish this first draft, but I knew going into this project that it would be a lot of work.
As I write all of this, of course, I’m having serious problems figuring out scene sequence. Wish me luck. It’s turning out to be a real struggle.
