Scene Progression

By Eddie Jones

Not that I do this with every novel, but when I have time, when I'm in my right mind, or not too far into the Jesus Juice, I follow the following formula for scene progression.

But before I get into the structure of scene building, let me offer some thoughts on Amazon’s new Kindle Vella program.

According to Amazon: “Kindle Vella is a serial reading experience. To protect readers from purchasing Kindle Vella content they have already read in a different format, you cannot incorporate your Kindle Vella content into other long-form content (e.g., a book) in any language. If you wish to incorporate an episode or story into other content, you must unpublish all episodes of that story from Kindle Vella.”

There remains some confusion as to whether you can publish a serial story in novel form, but the phrase, “If you wish to incorporate an episode or story into other content, you must unpublish all episodes of that story from Kindle Vella” seems to suggest you can.

Kindle Vella may be a great way to introduce readers to a forthcoming novel, gain valuable feedback from Vella, and grow your fan base. That said, if you’re planning to plunge into Vella publishing each episode needs to hook the reader and pull them into the next scene and next episode.  

• State the goal of your Lead at the beginning of each scene.
• What does she want?
• What does he need?
• How does he plan to acquire the thing he wants?
• What will she give up for the thing she wants?
• This “want” is your Lead’s stake in the ground.
• Promise pain through foreshadowing (tears, heartache, physical discomfort).
• Deliver pain through action (show your Lead suffering).

Allow your Lead to progress from:

• Goal
• Conflict
• Disaster
• Choice

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Suspense is anticipation, so announce the reward for your Lead early in the scene. Restate your Lead’s goal as necessary. Halfway through is a good spot for reminders.

• Never let your Lead relax for too long.
• Increase the risk of failure.
• Toward the end of the scene add penalties for failure.
• Tension comes from unresolved conflict so leave your character’s world messy.
• Promise a payoff for that scene, then delay the payoff until later.
• Deliver some payoff, but not the thing your Lead sought.

Either introduce a new wrinkle to the story or alter something significant (new wrinkles that promise pain and problems AND altering a significant element in a negative way will generate reader interest IF they care for your characters).

I write middle grade paranormal murder mysteries and YA pirate novels so my readership will be different from yours, but you should be able to apply most of these general principles to your genre.

Write on. Write fast. Write as if Jesus will come tomorrow.

(Photos courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net, IndypendenZ.)

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Eddie Jones is an award-winning author of middle-grade fiction with HarperCollins. Father of two boys, he’s also a pirate at heart who loves to surf. An avid sailor with a great sense of humor, Eddie has been married to a girl he met at a stoplight in West Palm Beach during spring break for ... "too many years," Eddie's wife says. "Not enough," says Eddie.

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