December 6, 2011

How to Squeeze the Most out of Scenes

Cartoon graphic of woman's brain being squeezed in a vise grip

Whether we’re a plotter, pantser, or somewhere in between, we all eventually have to take the time and make our scenes the best they can be. This week I have a guest post at the Girls With Pens blog on how to do that. (Edited to redirect link, as GWP has shut down.)

We’re talking about how to make sure that scene is really needed (includes a list of the legitimate reasons for a scene to exist), as well as how to get at the emotional heart of a scene. Once we know that, we can pump up a reader’s emotional response to create more tension, more worry, more dread, more everything. *smile*

You might also want to check out a great older post from Janice Hardy about how to mix and match scene elements. She gives some helpful guidelines to make sure our scene has a strong enough point and isn’t just about backstory or an information dump with some conflict thrown in to make it look good.

Also, it’s the time of year for nominating your favorite writing blogs for the annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest over at Write To Done. Think about the writing blog that has helped you the most and spread the love by nominating them:

Head over to Write To Done’s Nomination post.
Leave a comment with the name and link of your favorite writing blog.
You must include information about why you think that blog deserves to be in the Top 10 Blogs for Writers (just leaving the link doesn’t count).
The deadline for nominations is December 10th.

I’m not bringing this up because I’m begging for votes (although I wouldn’t mind them), but because there are so many great blogs out there that don’t get the recognition they deserve. I want to see some new faces on the winner’s list this year. *smile* Personally, I nominated Janice Hardy’s blog because she has tons of helpful posts.

So go nominate your favorite writing blog and then head over to the Girls With Pens blog and give your brain the squeeze it needs to make your scenes rock.

Have you nominated a blog over at Write To Done yet? What are some of your favorite writing blogs? Any blogs you want to put in a good word for here and see if you can drum up more support?