Today on Write Better Fiction we’ll cover NAMING A SCENE. Write Better Fiction is a process to help you critique your own manuscript and give yourself feedback. This will help you improve your novel so you’re ready to submit it to an editor. Check the bottom of this post for links to previous Write Better Fiction articles.
Last week I wrote about the action in a scene. Maybe it seems odd I chose to fill out the action before naming the scene, but I have a strategy for this.
Did you find it hard to describe a scene in three sentences or less? Well, naming a scene is harder, but it help you hone the scene.
Now I’m going to ask you to use one word to name the scene. If you must, you can use two. I confess this sometimes happens to me.
Some writers list scenes with numbers only and that’s fine. For me, the exercise of naming the scene makes me narrow down what the scene is about. Since I already have the scene action defined in one to three sentences, the scene name might already exist somewhere in those words.
The Scene Name column is connected to the Purpose of a Scene column, and will help you discover what the scene is really about. The purpose of the scene is another place to look for hints on what to name your scene. At this point you may want to re-evaluate the purpose of the scene in case you’ve changed your mind based on the scene action and naming the scene.
The names of the scenes might give you insight into the theme of your novel.
Your challenge this week is to name each scene in your novel. Then let me know if this helped you focus your scenes.
I critiqued DESCENT and BLAZE using the techniques I’m sharing in Write Better Fiction, and I believe this helped me sign with a publisher.
Previous blog posts on Write Better Fiction:
- Number 1 Question to ask yourself about PLOT
- Number 1 Question to ask yourself about CHARACTER
- Number 1 Questions to ask yourself about SETTING.
- Action in a scene
Please me know in the comments below how you name your scene? Is it important for you to have a scene name?
Thanks for reading…
Creative Story Editors 
I have trouble naming or even describing scenes. I was outlining my next novel and ended up with scene names like, “On the bridge,” “Under the bridge,” and “Next to the bridge.”
Wow, I guess naming might be important, way too much of the action is related to the bridge…
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LOL. I did that too when I wrote my first draft of my first novel. I wrote about doors instead of bridges. Once you’re aware of it, you can make it better 🙂
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