The hardest scenes to write...

Girlsgottawrite · Dec 5, 2019

I just finished a scene that should have been simple --a group siting around a table sharing information.

But it sooooo wasn't!

It should have been a simple discussion/cool down period after a heavy scene, but it was a struggle for me to convey the information in a way that was interesting and well paced. I seem to find it so much harder to write these types of scenes. I'll take action and emotional angst any day over these more basic--characters having a discussion--scenes. It's just so easy for them to get boring or telly.

Anyone else have trouble with this sort of thing? If not, then what's most difficult for you to write?

indianroads · Dec 5, 2019

Girlsgottawrite said:
I just finished a scene that should have been simple --a group siting around a table sharing information.

But it sooooo wasn't!

It should have been a simple discussion/cool down period after a heavy scene, but it was a struggle for me to convey the information in a way that was interesting and well paced. I seem to find it so much harder to write these types of scenes. I'll take action and emotional angst any day over these more basic--characters having a discussion--scenes. It's just so easy for them to get boring or telly.

Anyone else have trouble with this sort of thing? If not, then what's most difficult for you to write?

I often play with the subtext of the conversation when writing things like that. There's always mannerisms, glances, and word choices that hide other things going on.

Dan Rhys · Dec 5, 2019

Your difficulty here could be due to the possiblity--and I say this with all due resepct--that you were writing a scene that was not particulary exciting or engaging. People sitting around a table sharing information offhand sounds a bit mundane. I started a thread some time ago that got only one reply, but it was about writing quirks, and my quirk is that I never have more than two characters in a scene. Not only do I find a crowd of people alienating to the reader, but I like giving the reader the idea that s/he has access to a scene that virtually no one else does. Literally every scene I write is one that I find exciting, so my only suggestion is to try to make every scene as thrilling and enjoyable for you to imagine as possible, and I believe the writing process will come smoother.

Koulentis · Dec 5, 2019

The sharing information scenes were one of the most difficult for me to write (now it's action). What helped me was changing my perspective on what the characters were really doing. It wasn't sharing information, but rather getting ready for the next obstacle. Examples:
1. Cowboys at the campfire, they're not sharing information. They're replenishing themselves in preparation for tomorrow's cattle drive.
2. Adventurers on the road, with each step they're moving closer to their goal/death.
3. In-laws at a dinner table are prying into each other's lives (the hidden agenda indianroads mentioned).

While my characters are taking care of real business, I weave in the information sharing.

Hope that helps. Keep writing!

Odile_Blud · Dec 5, 2019

I find action scenes difficult to write, myself.

Gillhoughly · Dec 5, 2019

The big climax in The Maltese Falcon -- the novel as in the film-- has five people sitting around a room waiting for a delivery and talking.

Read how Dashiell Hammett handled it.

Kjbartolotta · Dec 5, 2019

I tried writing romance this year. Didn't go well.

Kat M · Dec 5, 2019

Kjbartolotta said:
I tried writing romance this year. Didn't go well.

Won't touch the genre with a ten-foot pole for exactly that reason! (I'm talking writing . . . it's not my favorite genre to read, but I have mad respect for Romance authors.) I have a hard time writing any sort of romantic scene, possibly due to inexperience, possibly due to the ever-present danger of sliding down the slippery slope of maudlin sludge.

I also find it hard to write scenes with truly elderly characters. It's hard for spring-chicken me to get into their heads and make them fully human in a way that feels authentic. Children, on the other hand, are easy for me—they spring onto the page fully formed—and off the page—and onto the page—and off of the page—and then an adult bawls at them to sit down and stop jumping on the pages.

Roxxsmom · Dec 5, 2019

A scene where people are talking can be interesting, but there needs to be tension and at least some potential conflict, even if it represents a winding down from a more "active" scene. People still have desires, fears and goals, and they won't all be the same. There are things one person won't want to come right out and say directly to another. People also have different personality types, and they can get hung up on different issues and have different values and quirks. What is at stake in this conversation? How does it advance the plot and story?

Kjbartolotta · Dec 5, 2019

Kat M said:
Won't touch the genre with a ten-foot pole for exactly that reason! (I'm talking writing . . . it's not my favorite genre to read, but I have mad respect for Romance authors.) I have a hard time writing any sort of romantic scene, possibly due to inexperience, possibly due to the ever-present danger of sliding down the slippery slope of maudlin sludge.

Yeah, I dunno. I couldn't find the tension and I kept discovering I had no interest in people falling in love when they could be loathing each other. Dunno, might just be something I never tries before but it was excruciating.

But yes, romance writers are the smartest people on the planet and the we'd be better off if they just ruled over us like royalty.

*waves at romance AWers*

To the OP, I actually like scenes like this because it allows me to explore the ways people are constantly miscommunicating and revealing things they're not aware of. There's plenty of room for emotional angst and I think they're often places you can insert humor into the story. But I feel you, there's often those times you're buzzing along and there's just a scene at a table or something and it just falls flat. Sometimes I wonder if it's just because I'm not enjoying writing the scene at the moment.

MaeZe · Dec 5, 2019

I have trouble with lots of scenes. Today it was a first date because there needs to be some getting to know each other before the guy takes the girl (MC) to the farm where a big reveal awaits. I have a number of different conversation pieces with specific reveals that I will work into various places where these two are interacting.

I marked the bits of conversation and put them in sections of their own so I can then decide where they go. Now they can either go in the restaurant scene or the ride to the farm.

I like how it's going.

shortstorymachinist · Dec 6, 2019

Girlsgottawrite said:
I just finished a scene that should have been simple --a group siting around a table sharing information.

But it sooooo wasn't!

It should have been a simple discussion/cool down period after a heavy scene, but it was a struggle for me to convey the information in a way that was interesting and well paced. I seem to find it so much harder to write these types of scenes. I'll take action and emotional angst any day over these more basic--characters having a discussion--scenes. It's just so easy for them to get boring or telly.

Anyone else have trouble with this sort of thing? If not, then what's most difficult for you to write?

I know exactly what you mean. It usually hits me when I come to an unexpected transition scene, when I realize there's nothing to connect two other scenes that I had visualized very well. It feels like I go from painting a masterpiece to paint-by-numbers, picking trite phrases out of a hat. People sigh, glance, smile, and narrow their eyes at a freakish frequency during those scenes and it's really grating to write.

Thankfully, sometimes I can take a step back, look at the scene, and realize I don't actually need it. Onto the next fun bit!

kujo_jotaro · Dec 6, 2019

Odile_Blud said:
I find action scenes difficult to write, myself.

Ditto!

kujo_jotaro · Dec 6, 2019

Kjbartolotta said:
Yeah, I dunno. I couldn't find the tension and I kept discovering I had no interest in people falling in love when they could be loathing each other. Dunno, might just be something I never tries before but it was excruciating.

But yes, romance writers are the smartest people on the planet and the we'd be better off if they just ruled over us like royalty.

*waves at romance AWers*

To the OP, I actually like scenes like this because it allows me to explore the ways people are constantly miscommunicating and revealing things they're not aware of. There's plenty of room for emotional angst and I think they're often places you can insert humor into the story. But I feel you, there's often those times you're buzzing along and there's just a scene at a table or something and it just falls flat. Sometimes I wonder if it's just because I'm not enjoying writing the scene at the moment.

Also one of the big reasons I switched up from YA to MG. Felt like making an MC lust after boys was the most important part of YA. Got incredibly tedious, incredibly quickly.

lizmonster · Dec 6, 2019

Hardest scenes to write? Goodness. All of them.

But yeah, probably action sequences. I generally have to write a battle at least 5 times to get it right.

I'm fortunate in that dialogue comes easily to me. If I'm stuck, I let my characters yak at each other until they figure out what needs to happen next. (It all gets deleted in revisions, of course!)

Lakey · Dec 6, 2019

One thing I try to do to add depth and interest to conversation scenes is to place them in a setting that carries symbolic significance.

In my favorite scene in the book that inspired me to write a novel of my own, a young woman has a conversation with her boyfriend about some feelings she has been experiencing and trying to make sense of. The conversation itself is oblique and interesting in all the ways good dialogue ought to be; but what really makes the scene special is that the conversation happens while the two of them are trying to fly a kite. The kite becomes a metaphor for their own relationship, the boy’s attempts to get them off the ground, the girl’s reticence; there is some funny double-entendre in the dialogue once you apply that interpretation to the kite, which adds a layer to the scene. Later in the scene the kite transforms into a metaphor for the girl’s own freedom and self-actualization; when the boy cuts the kite string, setting it free to really fly untethered, the girl has a panic attack.

It’s an incredible scene, with so many layers, and it makes me try to place my conversations in settings, or during activities, with symbolic resonance that adds to the meaning of the scene. So in my novel I have a conversation with two friends that takes place in a Bonsai garden, where in the course of a conversation about a different topic, one character expresses admiration for the carefully cultivated trees, and other is made uncomfortable by the amount of constraint and control they represent. In another scene, two characters converse while climbing the Statue of Liberty, and both the notion of “liberty” in the abstract and the exertion of the climb add to the meaning of the scene.

I don’t think it’s necessary to do this with every scene—sometimes you just sit in the living room and talk, though even then you can take advantage of your POV character’s perceptions of the objects around her, and the way all the characters interact with them, to amplify or even contradict the things they say in dialogue. But it’s a useful tool to add interest to your dialogue scenes. If it feels too much like characters are sitting around talking, then put them in a setting that they have to interact with, and see if it helps!

:e2coffee:

Barbara R. · Dec 6, 2019

It may be that "a simple discussion scene" is hard to write because nothing happens. The first question I ask about scenes that stick on the way out is "Do I need this scene?" It can be hard to write if it doesn't do enough. You call it a "cool down period." If that's its only purpose, I'm not surprised it's hard to write. If it does serve other purposes, what are they? If you don't have a sizable list, maybe you can achieve whatever functions it does serve through a more dynamic scene.

If you really do need the scene, one thing you can do is throw in a bit of action. Instead of 4 people sitting around the table, have one of them make coffee or whip up a meal because they find themselves unexpectedly hungry after beating off attackers from Mars, or whatever. Then you can intersperse the dialogue with a bit of action...and who knows what else might emerge?

angeliz2k · Dec 6, 2019

Echoing what Barbara R. said. Exposition (and this sounds like exposition in the form of dialogue) is, by itself, without tension. Maybe the problem you're having with this scene is that there isn't enough tension. It doesn't have to be external. It can interpersonal or even internal. Are these characters doubting themselves, or one another? Is one of them disbelieving of the information that's being shared? This can be subtle. It can be subtext. But you need something there to make it interesting, more than just the information that's being exchanged.

By the way, I, too, have difficulty with scenes where we slow down and impart information. I wrack my brain and poke and prod at the dialogue or exposition until I realize that what I really need is to 1) cut this scene entirely because maybe it's not needed, 2) cut it, but move the important parts to other scenes, 3) add an element, like another character who shakes things up, or something that intrudes (or threatens to intrude) on the conversation, or some boiling, underlying, unspoken (or spoken?) tension.

Action scenes and highly emotional scenes are usually pretty easy for me, because I know exactly what the tension is (the soldiers chasing the protag, or the death of a brother).

ALShades · Dec 6, 2019

Action was tough for me at first. And still is at times lol I have a tendency to write too much of whats happening. I've found that if I can narrow the action down to something important to the characters (and the reader) then the stakes of the action become more powerful and less rote. I don't generally like action that is there for the sake of action. I want to know that the sword stroke has a purpose. The main character might die. The main character is fighting her best friend's brother. That's more interesting than "sword slash, parry, sword slash, pant, sword slash."

I did recently have problems with a scene you're talking about. Others already touched on it, but really diving into the characters' wants can help. Does the POV character (and the others) want to steer the conversation a certain way? Are they a spy and don't want to be found out? Are they afraid of the coming battle, so they plan to lie about something? Adding an element like that can help up the stakes of the conversation, create consequences, while still imparting the information.

Now I need to rewrite that entire scene.

Girlsgottawrite · Dec 7, 2019

Thanks for the responses. In the end, I was happy with the scene, but I just thought it was funny how much of a struggle it was. Glad to see I'm not the only one.

Enlightened · Dec 12, 2019

Girlsgottawrite said:
what's most difficult for you to write?

Trying to write something outside my comfort zone makes the work slow down to a snail's crawl. I like to challenge myself, so I force in a little of this sort of thing here and there, when I can.

Ichabod · Dec 12, 2019

As Angleliz2k said, the tension could be in the belief that the truth is not being told along with internal thought.
In my book, my MC was incognito and every conversation with someone outside her group of friends was with an inner thought of being found out.

Ichabod · Dec 12, 2019

Dbl post. I'm goining to call it a night.

StoryForest · Dec 12, 2019

Sometimes I find writing big emotional scenes a challenge. Even though they are fun to write, I think they're also tricky to craft. Like being able to find the right balance of knowing whether the emotional descriptions are too much or not enough?

skylessbird2218 · Dec 12, 2019

Ending a story is like hell to me. My brain jumbles up whenever I reach the ending of even a short story and I manage to mess it up. I just feel a sort of emptiness inside whenever I'm nearing the end.

The hardest scenes to write...

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