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Writing on Strenghtening Scenes


I wrote yesterday about my writing process, and Piedmont Writer commented that she is writing her new novel not in a linear fashion as the story evolves, but scene by scene.

This can be a useful device even in short stories, but only in the later drafts, in my opinion, when we examine each scene for what it is worth and either sharpen it or delete it.

I found a great article on ways to strengthen a scene this morning, and thought I’d share it with you:

5 Easy Tips to Strengthen Your Scenes

A lot of writing and editing is on the cards today, so it is back to work.

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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8 Comments

  • Damyanti says:

    Thanks Anita, for the link and the compliment…will try harder to deserve both 🙂

  • Anita Marie says:

    What a great blog and resource! I'm linking you at my blog- keep up the great work!

  • Damyanti says:

    @dbalehane,

    I do the same for my longish short stories. I haven't readied anything that is longer than 7000 words yet, but already I find the method useful.

    Thanks for stepping by and taking the time to comment.

  • Damyanti says:

    SW, You're welcome. I'm another struggling writer too, and links like that help me, so I try and share them when I can.

  • dbalehane says:

    Thanks for the useful article link. Something I find helpful when formulating a story is to write scenes out to an index card. You can then move the cards around to see in what sequence scenes can work, what scenes to cut, etc.

  • Thanks for the link. Interesting stuff.

    I missed your post yesterday and will go back and read that now.

  • Damyanti says:

    You're welcome. I like your blog, especially the current series you're running.

    Your take on the process sounds reassuring, cos if I ever wrote a novel, I'd go about it more or less like that!

  • First, thanks for the shout-out.

    Second,I didn't plot out my novel until I got to around 30K words. It started out being one thing and ended up being what it is (which I still don't know exactly). I spent one whole weekend plotting and arcing, setting scenes and moving things around. And never looked at it again. (True. I couldn't even tell you where it is on my messy desk.)

    The story has evolved around itself. I never intended for so many things to happen in the story but my characters spoke and I just wrote it down.

    And although I write in scenes, the story itself is in linear fashion, if that makes any sense. I began at the beginning (the inciting incident) and will end at the end (when she finally gets to her goal).

    I also know there are several scenes which will have to be cut but I can't do that until I'm in revisions. I have to look at the "whole" story when it's done to be able to decide what stays and what goes.