After I stopped writing, I lost track of how to write a scene. I don't know how to start a scene, I don't know how to describe it, I don't even know what I should describe and what I shouldn't describe. I have no idea what to describe after a character makes a dialogue, I simply don't know the structure of scenes. Can someone teach me? Or give me tips on how to learn this besides reading books, because that alone is no use.
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I don't understand what problem you have. I had been reading (or had books read to me) since my early childhood, and when I started writing at the end of my adolescence, I had gained an intuitive understanding of the different aspects of a narrative, including a scene. I didn't immediately write well, of course, learning that took me decades, but I knew what a story looked like.
A scene (in a novel or short story) is just that: one continuous, complete event. I go to the dentist, the dentist treats me, and after she has finished her treatment I leave the dental clinic. Every scene has a beginning, where something is started, a middle, where what has been started is being carried out, and an end, where what was begun and carried out is concluded.
That's all. Now all you have to do is describe who begins, carries out, and concludes what.
As for describing such a scene well, that is something you have to practice and learn. And you learn writing by writing. Write one scene and another and another until you get good at it. Get feedback on your writing and/or re-read what you have written several months later, and try to correct the mistakes that you can identify. After one or two revisions, put what you have written away and write the next short story or novel. It will probably take many years for you to become good.
You need to approach writing like any other skill you want to learn. You wouldn't expect to play the violin like a master when you pick it up for the first time. Similarly, don't expect to write a bestseller on your first try. The surest way to writing block is to want your first novel to be a masterpiece.
In short, how to learn to write:
- Read
- Write
- Get feedback
- Revise
Repeat.
Ben
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One technique I have found useful as a beginner is using scenes and sequels, which is discussed on sites such as the Advanced Fiction Writing website, K. M. Weiland's Helping Writers Become Authors blog, and Janice Hardy's Fiction University.
They suggest dividing a scene into two main parts: scenes and sequels. Scenes are further subdivided into goal, conflict, disaster, while the sequels that follow them are divided into reaction, dilemma, decision. The decision leads to the goal of the next scene. It's a bit mechanical but it's a good starting point if you're struggling to construct a scene instinctively.
Taken from the Advanced Fiction Writing website:
"Goal: A Goal is what your POV character wants at the beginning of the Scene. The Goal must be specific and it must be clearly definable. The reason your POV character must have a Goal is that it makes your character proactive...
Conflict: Conflict is the series of obstacles your POV character faces on the way to reaching his Goal...If your POV character reaches his Goal with no Conflict, then the reader is bored...
Disaster: A Disaster is a failure to let your POV character reach his Goal... When a Scene ends in victory, your reader feels no reason to turn the page... Make something awful happen. Hang your POV character off a cliff and your reader will turn the page to see what happens next...
Reaction: A Reaction is the emotional follow-through to a Disaster. When something awful happens, you’re staggering for awhile, off-balance, out of kilter. You can’t help it. So show your POV character reacting viscerally to his Disaster. Show him hurting. This is not a time for action, it’s a time for re-action... Eventually, your POV character needs to get a grip. To take stock. To look for options. And the problem is that there aren’t any . . .
Dilemma: A Dilemma is a situation with no good options. If your Disaster was a real Disaster, there aren’t any good choices. Your POV character must have a real dilemma... Your reader must be wondering what can possibly happen next. Let your POV character work through the choices. Let him sort things out. Eventually, let him come to the least-bad option . . .
Decision: A Decision is the act of making a choice among several options. This is important, because it lets your POV character become proactive again... Do that, and your reader will have to turn the page, because now your POV character has a new Goal... "
All this is discussed in more detail on these sites (and probably numerous others).
https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/writing-the-perfect-scene/
https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/how-to-structure-scenes/
http://blog.janicehardy.com/2009/05/taking-scenic-route.html?m=1
Mousentrude
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