**Warning: Contains excerpt of scene with some mild language.***

Hello, Readers! We’re going to pretend that I have witty retorts for Graham, even though I don’t, and proceed with this week’s article. I cannot argue the world building angle, because our magic system will hoist me by my own petards. I cannot argue with the organization, because by ordering my points, I would prove his point. But I still know in my heart of hearts that I was tricked, tricked I tell you!! And he made me a writer without me knowing it!

But… how? How did that happen? What nefarious scheme did he use? Well, he just gave me the rope and let me run.

In my previous article, I talked about how I would select a scene that was particularly inspiring. Or find a visual that was clear in my mind. But I was still facing severe limitations. I hated writing action, and I loathed dialogue. Both of these did not lend themselves to writing a fantasy novel. But I had “snips” in my mind.

So I started by attempting those, and they were ROUGH! Very ROUGH! I struggled to get words down that would match my vision. But Graham would gently remind me that I was “on to something” and “here’s a thing you could work on.” He would send me writer’s videos to hone my skills. And suddenly things began to click. Now, I approach the entire process differently, and my scenes today are significantly better than they were just two years ago. But what do I do now that I didn’t do then?

Let’s discuss.

One scene specifically that I would like to talk about, is the first sparring session between Jesse and Symon. It wasn’t originally outlined, but I knew this scene would be a great start to their friendship. It is where the two see the world for the first time through the eyes of the other. The class divide that separates them is exposed for the lie that it is. It is a pivotal moment in our main characters (MCs) story that will forever change them. Now I just had to write it.

So, in June of 2020, I added the header into the outline:

I then proceeded to put a 1493 word jumbled mess of a scene down. I put in the barest of descriptors, my perspective was all over the place and the worse thing I did was forget multiple things that I wanted to see. It was a difficult and humbling challenge, but it was something. I took a few passes at editing, but struggled to organize the scene and get it to its “first draft” state of 1530 words.

I found many, many scenes would go this way for me. I would take my first pass, and would write it as I could “see” it. Then I would come back and realize that I forgot a line of dialogue that I really wanted. Or that I would get lost and ramble about certain exposition and miss a critical component that I was hoping to share.

So, how did I resolve this? Well, outlining worked for the entire novel… maybe it could work for a scene?

So, now I re-approach the scene with a bullet list.

Now, with a specific idea of all of my points, I will go back and begin dropping my dialogue into place. Exchanging the voices between the characters that are present and focusing on the messages that they are trying to convey. Without the distraction of the setting around them, I’m much more focused on what they are feeling and how they would choose their words.

Once the dialogue has been set, I can now go back and focus on the narrative. Describing each character, their motion, the surrounding scene, all worthy of attention. And in this step, it’s my primary focus. This allows me to truly dig into “showing, not telling” (which, of course, I still struggle with from time to time). But with this step, I’m no longer concerned about getting distracted or missing something. Each paragraph has my full attention. And it makes for a clearer overall scene with crisper details and perspectives.

Even in this step, there will be added elements. A quip from Thorn, an extra step or descriptor. But I’m now “adding” to the flesh of the scene. Building on the core foundation and allowing myself to dive deeper and deeper into it. Suddenly, my scenes became much richer. And longer. My original version of the Sparring scene had grown to its mature form of 2530 words. I understood the scene and now I had the tools to tell it the way it was meant to be.

While not perfect, I am much happier with scenes that I write today. This technique has made me as stronger writer, a stronger story-teller, and I continue to improve as I go.

So, hopefully, this explains how I, tricked into writing as I was, became the writer that I always wanted to be. Graham got me into it, but I did find my own path. Now, when he builds the government structure and the political organizations, and tells me the trade route that the path is on and which cities, populations, and guilds would be affected, I’ll keep driving on it. (I’ve got tricks of my own, muhahaha).

Until next time.

Be kind.

–Clevenger