Writing in Scenes

   Shortly after beginning Harbinger of Secrets I realized that I preferred not to write chapters in sequence.  I found this traditional way of writing to be less inspiring than what one well-known Canadian author termed “writing in scenes.”

    I was about a quarter of the way through the first draft of my book when my family and I were on a Caribbean cruise.  (Naturally, I had my laptop with me on holiday!)  One morning I took my computer to the ship’s library and started to look through the shelves.  Once I’d flipped through a few books I was motivated by a poem titled, “Reading Gaol” by Oscar Wilde. I wanted to write a chapter or two about Briscoe’s ship in the Irish Sea and his subsequent struggle with Eve Trelawney.  There was a passage in “Reading Gaol” which fit the story and Briscoe’s episode in the Irish Sea.  I then sketched out the details for the chapters and used a few lines of “Reading Gaol” in my novel.

    The two chapters that were roughly written while on the cruise ship resulted in powerful  outcomes for both Briscoe and Eve, while the inspiration unexpectedly came from an Oscar Wilde poem.

    Taking advantage of my albeit pleasant holiday at sea, - hardly a comparison to the ‘40s - I would also stroll around the promenade deck in the evenings when it was completely dark and not a light to be seen on the horizon.  I listened to the sounds of the sea, the way it collided with the ship, and felt the motions of the waves.  The blackness of the surroundings heightened the senses far more than daytime hours ever could.  Soon after this exercise, I would either make detailed sensory notes or weave these ‘senses’ directly into the chapters.

    Methods like these never failed to produce results for scenes I wanted to write.

    However - and it’s a significant ‘however’ - not writing in sequence, being left with a number of chapters/scenes is not the easiest method.  These chapters then had to be selected to reflect a chronological order, with chapter endings that would entice the reader to turn the page to the next chapter to see what happened next.

    Interestingly, one of the recurring comments I have had about Harbinger of Secrets is the phrase, “I couldn’t put it down, I wanted to see what happened next.”

    The other significant ‘however’ to writing in scenes is to be aware that not all chapters/scenes can be constant peaks of excitement.  Chapters/scenes in between the peak chapters must provide the reader with a breather, so to speak.

    On the other hand, writing in scenes has its benefits.  One of the most important is that the writer, whether inspired by research, external factors, or just plain frame of mind on any particular day, is richly motivated to get her/his ideas immediately into the story when the story is hot in their imagination.