Do you write out side scenes?

Regan Leigh · Sep 10, 2009

I have found it VERY helpful to write out scenes with my characters that I never have any intention of putting in my book. I was afraid that I might be wasting crucial writing time with those types of activities, but since trying it, I have found that it helps me understand my characters better. (I also get a good understanding of events that are only mentioned within my actual story.)

So... I'm wondering if others use this technique and how beneficial you find it?

*Sometimes it drives me crazy, though. Like when a side scene is so fun/good, but I have no real use for it in the story.

Regan Leigh · Sep 10, 2009

Oh! And are there other techniques that I could use for a similar purpose?

lauraannwilliams · Sep 10, 2009

I do this a lot. Sometimes I realize it's not going to be used, sometimes I don't right away. But it helps to get me unstuck sometimes, and definitely gets me deeper into the characters heads.

MGraybosch · Sep 10, 2009

Regan Leigh said:
So... I'm wondering if others use this technique and how beneficial you find it?

I do it all the time. I find it helps me understand my characters better, even if I can't justify putting those scenes into the story.

soapdish · Sep 10, 2009

I am in revisions of my first novel and an realizing a lot of the scenes I thought were going to be in it aren't. I think they are "side scenes" as you call them. At first I felt horrible, like I'd wasted all this time and energy creating them and now they aren't even going to count toward the main thing--but now I realize they were totally necessary. Like you said:

I have found that it helps me understand my characters better. (I also get a good understanding of events that are only mentioned within my actual story.)

And I cut mine and keep them in another file--that way I can harvest them for goodness later--on this piece or maybe on something else. If they are fun/good--don't waste them!

katiemac · Sep 10, 2009

Oh! And are there other techniques that I could use for a similar purpose?

Along the same lines, you can also throw your character in completely different scenarios. Say you're writing historical fiction; toss your character onto a space ship fighting a couple of aliens. On the one hand it's ridiculous, but you might get a different handle on how your character reacts.

Regan Leigh · Sep 10, 2009

My most recent one involved MC's love interest. After sort of cheating on her, he confessed it all. The thing is, in my head I knew he would lie to her about the details. He was protecting the other woman, making himself sound worse in the process. I ended up writing the cheating scene - that my MC never saw happen - just so I would know the "truth". It really helped. Even though my MC, and in turn my reader, will never know... I know. And it seems to make all the difference in writing that character.

MGraybosch · Sep 10, 2009

katiemac said:
Say you're writing historical fiction; toss your character onto a space ship fighting a couple of aliens. On the one hand it's ridiculous, but you might get a different handle on how your character reacts.

I agree with katiemac. Also, you could try writing your character in a scene from his/her day-to-day life where your character goes through whatever routine he/she has when not participating in your plot.

I had learned a fair amount about my antagonist, Isaac Magnin, by writing a scene in which he wines and dines a human woman so that he can seduce her for a night's amusement. His sex life is utterly irrelevant to the story, but the way he has to weigh his words to avoid revealing too much was enlightening.

Regan Leigh · Sep 10, 2009

katiemac said:
Along the same lines, you can also throw your character in completely different scenarios. Say you're writing historical fiction; toss your character onto a space ship fighting a couple of aliens. On the one hand it's ridiculous, but you might get a different handle on how your character reacts.

I've never tried this, but I will! Thanks!

It's good to know others do this too. I had thought I might be going a little overboard.

Regan Leigh · Sep 10, 2009

MGraybosch said:
I agree with katiemac. Also, you could try writing your character in a scene from his/her day-to-day life where your character goes through whatever routine he/she has when not participating in your plot.

Good idea. I have one character that I really need to develop as far as their past goes. I know her here and now. I know her future self. But I need to know who she was before I threw her into a crazy scenario.

Brutal Mustang · Sep 10, 2009

Regan Leigh said:
So... I'm wondering if others use this technique and how beneficial you find it?

Funny. I have never done this before. However, there is this pivotal, emotional part of my story, which is going to be described in vague detail by one of my characters. Just this afternoon, I was thinking I should write it in great detail, to understand him better. Then I wondered if other people did that. :roll:

Regan Leigh · Sep 10, 2009

Brutal Mustang said:
Funny. I have never done this before. However, there is this pivotal, emotional part of my story, which is going to be described in vague detail by one of my characters. Just this afternoon, I was thinking I should write it in great detail, to understand him better. Then I wondered if other people did that.

Well, I'm glad I could answer it for both of us!

Brutal Mustang · Sep 10, 2009

Juliette Wade · Sep 11, 2009

I definitely do this. I've done it generally in the shape of short stories, both to elaborate on a character and to figure out pieces of his or her backstory. In one case, the backstory ended up growing into an entire novel. I never find that words are wasted when used in this way. The depth of your knowledge of the world and characters will show in the subconscious features of language, and knowing information like this will help you to construct a voice where readers will trust you.

Freelancer · Sep 13, 2009

I do this many times. I write little side stories, mostly comedic ones. They can help to relax a bit, tell the whole story, even a serious ones on a quite different way, at least for a short moment. i.e. that's how my lil' angel MC rewritten and sang the revised version of Beach Boys - California Dreamin' in her own cheeky style, fitted into the original story, which suddenly turned to a comedy musical.

I believe side stories are the natural part of the development and character evolution. I always keep these side stories. I can laugh at them even years later.

maestrowork · Sep 13, 2009

Hmmm, I almost never do. Sure, there are scenes I wrote that I later cut from the ms. because I thought they were either irrelevant or too long, etc. but I don't think I ever wrote "side" scenes which I had no intention of including in the ms. (except for an epilogue I did for TPB which was like a cast party -- that was just for the heck of it).

Stuff happens mostly in my head: character backgrounds, side stories, what they ate/did today, etc. I usually don't find the need to actually write them out. They're very clear in my head already.

I guess everyone has their own methods. Maybe I should try writing out some side scenes and see if that would help me with my main scenes. But somehow I doubt it.

Freelancer · Sep 13, 2009

Maestro. Try it. It can be fun.

Juliette Wade · Sep 13, 2009

Where I find it helps me most is that it allows me to get into the head of a character whose point of view I can't use in the main manuscript. The benefit crosses over to the main manuscript because that character's behavior generally takes on additional dimension once I've had to figure out precisely how he or she thinks.

Cella · Sep 13, 2009

I did this unintentionally and now I have a problem remembering what I did in fact, include. I might try the alien thing, as I doubt something like that would ever find it's way into a ms of mine.

Good idea.

Ruv Draba · Sep 13, 2009

For me a first draft ends up being a map of what I don't know and what's not working. Very little of what I write in first draft ends up being in a later draft -- so those later drafts have to come from somewhere, and my answer is that they mostly come from ideas outside the first draft.

While it's always tempting to rush a first draft with whatever I think I know, in practice what's important is that I get to the final draft as efficiently as possible. As drafts get longer they create their own burden on a writer. For longer stories I'd rather play with design bits until they give me no more wisdom then work them into manuscript and discover whatever I couldn't forsee.

So I spend a lot of time journalling characters, interviewing them, researching setting, writing snippets, collecting music and images -- none of them end up appearing in the story, but the ideas they generate often do.

Stijn Hommes · Sep 14, 2009

soapdish said:
I am in revisions of my first novel and an realizing a lot of the scenes I thought were going to be in it aren't. I think they are "side scenes" as you call them. At first I felt horrible, like I'd wasted all this time and energy creating them and now they aren't even going to count toward the main thing--but now I realize they were totally necessary. Like you said:
And I cut mine and keep them in another file--that way I can harvest them for goodness later--on this piece or maybe on something else. If they are fun/good--don't waste them!

I generally don't write scenes I have no intention of using. I create all scenes I use to understand my characters in my head. But if it gets you unstuck and helps you understand the characters, I see no reason to not do it.

Soapdish is absolutely right. Even if you have no intention of using the scenes in your current WIP, you can keep them on file for later use (which is something I do all the time for stuff I cut or stuff I think up but doesn't fit my story.

Chasing the Horizon · Sep 14, 2009

Well, I never do this on purpose, but I have this 43,000 word sequence I cut from one of my novels because it was . . . ridiculous in a way I can't even explain. Fantasy with hallucinogenic drugs. Did I mention it was basically all one single scene? Yeah, weird. Anyway, in that one massive scene are most of the fundamental ideas from three of my novels, except they now have a plot and don't involve hallucinations, lol. I don't regret writing that scene, because of the insight it gave me into the characters and all the interesting scenarios I thought of as a result. It was incredibly fun.

I don't think I could bring myself to do the work of actually writing a scene if I knew it wouldn't be included in the final draft, though. Like Maestro, I see it all pretty clearly in my head without needing to write it down.

Linda Adams · Sep 14, 2009

I may end up with scenes that ultimately don't stay in the book, but I don't intentionally write scenes that I know I'm not going to use. Just doesn't seem like a good use of time for me, especially when I have a couple of horrendously weak areas that I struggle with, like plotting, that I need to pay attention. Characterization is one of my strengths. If I can nail the plot, I can toss characters into the story and make the characterization work. Side scenes wouldn't help me as much as getting the plot down.

ishtar'sgate · Sep 14, 2009

Regan Leigh said:
I have found it VERY helpful to write out scenes with my characters that I never have any intention of putting in my book. So... I'm wondering if others use this technique and how beneficial you find it?

I've done it too. I wrote a scenario for how Stonehenge came to be built - history of the ancient builders and how they built it and what they used it for. Those pages never made it into THE FIRST VIAL but it helped having that background material when I wrote scenes using Stonehenge as a setting.

CaroGirl · Sep 14, 2009

Linda Adams said:
I may end up with scenes that ultimately don't stay in the book, but I don't intentionally write scenes that I know I'm not going to use.

This ^.

Do you write out side scenes?

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