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Situation Profiles in Creative Writing

By VJ
When you write a story, you will be going through a number of scenes. In novels and novelettes, these scenes shouldn't be undervalued. When cross-referencing scenes, you may miss simple aspects such as the time, characters involved, what exactly happened in the scene, etc. At that time, it is very important to get all attributes of the scene right. For this purpose, you should ideally create profiles for each of your scenes. Here I have some tips for that.

Create a scene record as a separate document, with only the details of all scenes. You needn't write the entire scene down; just record the required attributes and if possible, link to the original scene in the story. Here are the things you need to record.

1. The Time Period

There are stories that happen in two days' time, and there those that happen in 30 years' time. The first thing you need to note down about a scene is the exact time when it happens. Record it as a period. This will help you track the succession of events accurately.

2. The Characters Involved

As every scene involves various characters, it goes without saying that you need to record the specific characters that go about in a scene. If the scene involves character entries, make sure that you put the time when it happens. Also, if there are any staple dialogs or actions that decide the course of the story, make special attributes to them.

3. The Effect of the Scene

Now, as a way to advance the story, you need to record the overall contribution of the scene to the novel. This is important, because with these developments, you can summarize the entire novel. This helps you track the logical development of the story until the end. It also helps you to know if there are any technical research flaws in the novel.

Conclusion

Just as you create character profiles (with bios and other features of each character), create scene profiles as a separate document. This will make it a breeze for you to complete the story.

Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008
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