Why You Should Write in Scenes and Edit in Chapters

And what's the difference between the two anyway?

In one of the Facebook writer groups I’m in, a common question I see asked is some variation of “Does my novel have enough chapters?”. Or they might ask something like “How long should my chapter be?”

There are inevitably a number of replies, varying from snarky and unhelpful, to well-meaning but misguided, to detailed and beneficial. But these questions keep cropping up, so I decided that now was the time to write a full article about the issue.

Why is this confusing to writers?

All writers start out as readers. It’s how we fell in love with the written world and what inspired us to craft our own stories. And as such, it is chapters that we are most familiar with. Chapter breaks are where we choose to stop reading (or say, just one more page), it’s where the most damage to the page occurs from dog-ears, and it is an obvious way to break up a story.

Scenes, on the other hand, are often invisible unless you’re actually looking for them. To spot them, you need to perform a close reading, or an analytical reading of a text. Often, this sucks the enjoyment out of a book, so most readers don’t do this. However, if you want to progress your craft, it’s an important skill to master.

What I often do is I’ll read a book the first time for pure enjoyment. This is just using my reader brain and the only thing I take note of while reading this is am I having fun and have I forgotten to get ready to go out (again). Then it’s the second reading where I’ll activate that analytical side of my brain and try to dig into why I am enjoying a story, what is working and why it works. Or, conversely, why it’s not working and why I’m bored or am skipping paragraphs or pages. It is only during this analytical reading that I can ignore the chapter breaks and separate out the scenes.

What is a scene?

Following that, it stands to reason that scenes are more difficult to wrap your head around than chapters, so we’ll start with them.

At the most basic level, a scene is a structure device that serves to move the story forwards. You probably already instinctively write in scenes, especially if you’re a pantser, but it’s useful to understand the detail and their role so that you can troubleshoot any issues your story might have.

Scenes follow a very distinct pattern. There are two ways I like to look at a scene. The first is more detailed, and best suited for those who really like to dig deep into the craft and plan it all out:

Part 1: Setup

1. Goal - What does the protagonist want at this point in time? This is a smaller goal. For example, they want to convince their friend to skip school and visit the movies with them. It’s not their overarching goal that they want to achieve by the end of the novel, just what they want at this particular moment.

2. Conflict - In attempting to obtain their goal, the protagonist comes up against some kind of obstacle. For example, a teacher becomes suspicious as they are trying to leave the school grounds.

3. Disaster - Something from the conflict goes wrong for the protagonist. This is the point where the reader is left desperate to know how it will all play out. For example, the teacher confronts the protagonist and their friend.

Part 2: Sequel

1. Reaction - The protagonist reacts to the disaster in line with their personality, their misbelief, or their fear and is usually an internal reaction unless the protagonist is particularly impulsive. For example, this protagonist has a real problem with authority and authority figures, so their initial reaction is one of defensive arrogance.

2. Dilemma - Because of the disaster and the protagonist’s reaction, they now must make a decision: how are they going to respond to this newly developed situation? For example, the protagonist realises that they are on their final warning with the school, and if they keep reacting as they are, they could be expelled and, for whatever reason, they don’t want that.

3. Decision - The protagonist makes a decision and acts upon it, wrapping up the scene. In our example, perhaps the protagonist decides to outwardly apologise to the teacher for arcing up and backs down, while inwardly they are making plans to try again for the next study period.

Every scene in your story should follow this same sequence of events for each point of view character.

The second way to look at a scene structure is more simple. You need to ask every major character in your scene:

• What do they want? (Goal)

• What’s standing in their way? (Conflict)

• What are they willing to do to get it? (Dilemma)

This approach will best suit someone who prefers less structure and rigidity to their writing practice.

When you put either of these approaches into place, your story will have a constant action, reaction flow that will draw your reader on.

What is a chapter?

So then, how does a chapter differ from this?

Put simply, a chapter is a pacing device. It can be as long as half the book, or as short as one line, depending on what effect you are going for. Those are typically unusual scenarios, however. More often, a chapter is around two to three scenes.

More importantly, however, a chapter break can come in the middle of a scene.

Think back to something you read that ended the chapter on an incredible cliff hanger.

For example, I am currently reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (book review coming soon when I finish it. I’m about halfway, so no spoilers please!). Chapter One ends with (very minor chapter 1 spoilers ahead, skip to the next paragraph if you want nothing, but it’s not anything significant) the protagonist, Violet, the boy in front of her, and the girl behind her needing to cross a narrow bridge while facing strong winds and a drop to their death should they fall. The chapter ends with Violet about to step out onto the bridge right as the boy in front of her falls to his death.

That is not the end of the scene. Instead, it’s the Disaster, or point 3 as listed above. The scene continues with the start of Chapter 2 where Violet reacts to what she has seen, has one last chance to turn around and leave, and ultimately decides to continue.

So why did the Yarros break up the scene with a chapter break?

You guessed it, a cliff hanger! Shit just got real, and you wanted, no, needed to know what happened!

This is the most common way of structuring a chapter.

Chapter Break

1. Reaction

2. Dilema

3. Decision

Scene Break (usually designated by three asterisks (***) or by a blank line)

4. Goal

5. Conflict

6. Disaster

Chapter Break

Of course, as with all rules, this doesn’t need to be followed precisely. A chapter may have several scenes before coming to a break. And it may end on the Decision if you don’t want there to be a cliffhanger at that moment.

A good exercise is to take two or three chapters from whatever book you’re currently reading and try to determine each of the story beats in a scene and where a scene begins and ends.

• Does it end before the chapter does?

• After the chapter ends?

• Where is the chapter break in reference to the scene?

• What result does that give?

This kind of analysis will give you a good grounding on scene and chapter structure.

Why should I write in scenes and edit in chapters?

In short, scenes are logical decisions; chapters are creative decisions. - K. M. Weiland

The title of this article posits that you should write in scenes and edit in chapters. You have probably already worked out why by now, but I’ll spell it out, anyway.

When you’re writing the first draft of your novel, the most important thing is to get the story down. Without the story written down, with all the story beats you want to cover included, elements like pacing are irrelevant. You can’t increase or slow down the pace of your novel without knowing all the story beats that need to be included first (for more information on pacing, check out my article The Importance of Pacing).

While you’re drafting, it’s far more important to focus on the scene structure. This will help you determine if a scene adds something to the story, or if it’s just waffle that makes you feel good. Don’t get me wrong, I love some good waffle (especially drizzled with maple syrup, mmm) but your story needs to be tight from beginning to end, otherwise you risk your readers putting it down and not picking it back up again.

Once you’ve got a first draft that you’re happy with, that is the time to break it up into chapters. You can use your knowledge of the work as a whole to know when to split it for best effect.

Final Thoughts

Knowing the difference between scenes and chapters, especially on a logical level as opposed to an instinctive one, is particularly useful to writing a story that keeps your readers engaged and the pages turning. Hopefully, this article has helped with that, and if you have any questions, be sure to leave a comment!

Next week I’ll be publishing Episode 4 of Corporate Shadows, so I hope you look forward to it! Be sure to subscribe so that you never miss an update.

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