One Amazing Perspective Shift to Make Scene Writing Easier

Originally published by Writers in the Storm blog on 7th February 2024.

Author: Sandy Vaile 


Have you ever wondered why pulling all the pieces of a novel together feels like such hard work? Me too.

Each author has a different process, but if you love feeling immersed in the lives and emotional dramas of fictional characters, then shifting your focus from external plot to internal state, could be the perfect way to allow your plot to be revealed organically.

While writing my third novel, I had a revelation that changed my approach to scene planning forever.

​Harnessing motivated characters helped me connect internal and external plot threads. 

The Evolution of this Story Revelation

For a long time, I wondered why story structure was so difficult. I felt like I’d learnt the various storytelling techniques, but pulling them all together on the changing landscape of plot and character development was a different matter.

I started to doubt myself.

Was I the only one struggling to overlay their ideas onto beats and turning points? Everything I’d learnt about three acts, hero’s journeys and beats was still relevant, but there was some sort of disconnect when it came to pulling all the threads of a story into a cohesive and compelling plot.

Then it struck me!

​If I shifted my approach from what external events needed to happen, to why the main character was there, suddenly all the pieces of the plot clicked together like DNA nucleotides, forming the unique genetic sequence for this story. 

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