TECH: Setting Scenes (Novel Writing Bootcamp #3)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Writer's Digest, March 2004, page 42 to 49, has a bonus section with the title, "Novel Writing Boot Camp," by Bob Mayer. I'm probably not going to summarize all of the bits and pieces, but let's pick out some of the odds and ends.

The sidebar on page 45 is very short. It points out that at the start of a new chapter or a change of perspective (I think they mean point of view) you need to quickly orient the reader. Four questions that you can use as a checklist at the beginning of every chapter and scene:

1. Where's the locale?
2. When in the timeline does this scene occur, particularly in relation to the preceding scene?
3. What's the point of view, and if it is tied to a character, which one?
4. Who's here?

The beginning of your scene -- the first two paragraphs -- needs to firmly and quickly tell the reader where they are, and when.