How to Write a Scene: Tips for Crafting Strong Scenes

Scenes are more than just witty dialogue, shocking twists, or romantic moments— they are the fundamental unit of fiction and the foundation of the emotional connection between your story and the reader. As writers, we want to make each scene as memorable and impactful as possible.

So, how do you structure and tailor scenes to create the perfect mini-stories that will make readers fall in love with your novel? In this post, we'll share our top tips for creating the perfect scene every time!

What is a scene?

Scenes are the building blocks of your story, functioning as miniature narratives that move the story forward. Each scene has a beginning, middle, and end, and centers on one event, action, or situation. This makes them distinct from chapters, which are used to set the reading pace and can be made up of multiple scenes.

A good scene should serve at least one of these purposes:

• Advance the plot
• Reveal new information about the protagonist or the world
• Set up a future plot point (foreshadowing)
• Contribute to the hero’s understanding of the theme (character transformation)

A scene ends when the story moves to a new location, a new period of time, or a new point of view.

Tips for writing strong scenes

Know the purpose of the scene

As much as we love reading banter between two characters or exciting fight scenes, compelling scenes have a much bigger purpose. Every scene in your novel needs solid reasons to exist. Sometimes the purpose of a scene is obvious. For example, the opening scene of your story hooks the reader by introducing your hero and setting up the story's conflict. However, as you get further into the murky middle of your story, knowing how a certain scene will reveal new information or advance the plot can be tricky.

When you’re creating a scene—or revising one, if you prefer pantsing the initial draft—ask yourself what the purpose is. Will it be a character development scene? Will it be when a plot twist is revealed? Creating a beat sheet or outline can help you map out your scenes before you start writing, so you don't have to spend precious writing time figuring out if a scene belongs in your book.

Write scenes with clear character goals, motivation, and conflict

A scene takes place in one location and time period and usually from the perspective of one character. That character must have a goal for the scene! Ideally, this should stem from their overall goal in the story. Once you know what you want to accomplish with a scene, it’s time to consider the character’s perspective. For example, if their overall goal is to find a lost artifact, a scene goal might involve questioning a key informant or deciphering an ancient map. 

Next, delve into why the character wants to achieve this goal. Their motivation adds depth and makes their actions believable. Consider their backstory, desires, fears, and what’s at stake if they fail. This motivation should be evident through their thoughts, dialogue, and actions within the scene.

Finally, conflict is essential for keeping the scene engaging. It arises from obstacles that prevent the character from easily achieving their goal. This can be external (e.g., another character with opposing objectives, physical barriers) or internal (e.g., self-doubt, moral dilemmas). Conflict creates tension and makes readers invested in the outcome. For example, the hero's quest for the artifact might be thwarted by a rival treasure hunter or complicated by their own fear of enclosed spaces.

Consider your scene structure

Whether you outline or write by the seat of your pants, your novel will still have a structure. Many writers use some variation of the three-act structure: all stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Scenes work the same way. A new scene begins, usually with a change in time or location, or a different point of view character. You need to set up the scene just as you would the opening of a story: establish what’s happening and why without overloading the reader with unnecessary details.

Like your overall story, many scenes include a climactic moment. In our example above, the climax of the scene could be when the rival treasure hunter steals the map that will lead your hero to their goal!

The scene ending is where things diverge from the novel ending. Novel endings are final. Even if there’s going to be a sequel, novels are structured to end in a way that the reader understands it’s time to close the book and be finished with the story. Unless it’s the final scene in your novel, that’s the last thing we want. The end of the scene must leave the reader wanting more…

Something must change during your scene

...Which brings us to our next tip: something must change in each scene. The character—and the reader—have to be changed in some way by what they just experienced. This ties back to when you, as the author, created purposes for each scene. Every scene needs to feel essential, and the change is part of that.

It can be an emotional shift. For example, your protagonist is heartbroken that they trusted their love interest only to find out they’ve been lied to. The scene may end with them storming out, and the reader will want to turn the page to see where they go!

Knowledge can shift as well. Perhaps there’s a bit of foreshadowing slipped in so the reader can see the love interest is telling the truth even if the protagonist can’t.

Pick something that fits the tone and theme of your story, but make sure each scene changes something, or ask yourself if the scene really needs to be there.

Write a great scene by playing to your writing strengths

Scenes are where your craft skills can truly shine. They give us a chance to bring characters to unique settings or finally have that swoony kiss they’ve been waiting for or maybe a fight to death, depending on what genre you’re writing! 

Dialogue often takes center stage in scenes. What are your characters discussing? What is their body language saying that their words are not? Again, take your time. Great scenes are filled with memorable dialogue, but you can also enhance that dialogue with subtext.

Bonus Tip: Pick the correct POV

If your book includes multiple points of view, choosing the right character to narrate the scene is crucial. In order to make sure the scene is as great as possible, you want to choose the POV of the character who has the most to gain or lose emotionally.

Ready to write a scene that keeps readers hooked?

Strong scenes are the basic building blocks of great stories. By knowing your scene's purpose, establishing clear goals, motivation, and conflict, and making sure something changes from the beginning to the end, you can craft scenes that keep readers hooked from beginning to end.