by Eleanor Bertin

Like inviting your outspoken aunt to a family dinner, writing a fictional scene anticipates that something will happen. Underlying all your meal preparations are the memories of past fiascos, the anticipation of rising tension due to words exchanged, and the dread of a final storming from the room by at least one offended guest. Before she even arrives, Auntie Feisty has made a scene.

I approach each chapter of my novels as a scene of its own, usually 1600-2000 words. Each scene is a novel in miniature with its own distinct beginning, middle, and end.

BEGINNING:

Beginning with a hook, the first sentence must grab. My romantic suspense novel Flicker of Trust opens with an introspective scene, not usually the best for an opening chapter. But Flicker is the second in a trilogy, and I needed to re-introduce my main character who had first made an appearance toward the end of Book 1. Ryan is mooning about the girl he likes and lamenting his sordid past. Navel-gazing can be a hard-sell to keep readers’ interest, so I needed some sinister action to jolt and hold their interest.

Ryan Hainstock groped the floor of his tractor for the closest thing to a weapon—a four-foot length of iron pipe.

In the waning light of a fall day, Ryan is burying a dead body on his farm. It’s only a cow carcass, but the task leads Ryan to other regrets about the power in his hands and the evil things he’s done with them.

MIDDLE:

Everything in the middle of your scene, containing action or active dialogue, should highlight the character’s motives. The action in the middle of Flicker of Trust’s first chapter reflects Ryan’s response to his thoughts about Lynnie. Because he believes his wild past disqualifies him as leading man in Lynnie’s life, he takes out his grumpiness on his disabled father. Ryan’s personal history conflicts with our sympathetic view of him as a new Christian in love with a squeaky-clean girl. And voila, a murder charge against him is foreshadowed.

END:

The end of your scene should bring home what the opening sentence introduced. You can refer to it directly or indirectly, answering the question you initially raised in the reader’s mind. To move the entire novel forward at least a little, the final lines should resolve the main conflict of the scene. And they should hint at whatever comes next in the greater arc of your story.

Here are some ways I raise tension and reader interest to keep the pages turning: .

Ask a question: “He pounded the arms of his recliner. For over a year now he’d been relying on the boy. Kid had some nerve running out on his dad like this. Could Lloyd manage again by himself?”

Have a character make a reflective observation, either positive or negative. “Maybe he was improving at this business of caregiving after all.” (Positive.) “When he’d wished that the [missing woman] would disappear from his life, he’d never meant for her to disappear altogether. Much less for the whole mess to come to his door.” (Negative.)

Let a character make an emotional outburst. “Although he lay as still as he could, every ache and bruise hollered as though roll call were being taken. Here, yelled his swelling nose and cut lip. Here, shouted the cracked rib each time he tried to take a breath. Here, bellowed his throbbing shoulder. But louder than any was the worry over what might be happening to his girls.”

Action is one of the most effective ways to impel interest. “The SUV lurched ahead, ripping Lynnie farther away from her child with every speeding minute.”

Remember Auntie Feisty? Write your scenes with her in mind. Begin with an opening sentence that grabs and holds the reader’s attention. Follow through with a build-up of tension in dialogue and action in the middle. When you craft an ending where the situation blows up and the guests, your readers, wonder where we go from here, you have made your scene.

From her home in central Alberta, Canada, Eleanor Bertin writes fiction that ponders the depths of God’s love and mercy to humanity. She is the author of The Ties That Bind series, Lifelines, Unbound, and Tethered, and the Burning Bright series, Flame of Mercy, Flicker of Trust, and (upcoming) Flare of Doubt. Her memoir, Pall of Silence, is about her late son, Paul. She lives with her husband of 40 years and their youngest son, in what will someday be a beautiful century home. www.eleanorbertinauthor.com