Sexual scenes. I try to write them in when necessary, without trying to write a porno movie. Of course it all depends on the words you use, contrary to words that would heighten your readers sexual appetite. The book I’m working on right now, The Penny Vagina Murders, has a lot of sexual scenes. From the strip club, to the sexual desires of my serial killer, John. I am trying to write it, without turning it into the next Fifty shades of Sex.
The boring ones. Or rather, whatever scenes I have a hard time writing tend to end up boring. This usually seems to be because they are “in between” scenes that I know “should” happen between time A and time B, but I don’t really have a vision for them.
Transitional scenes. I’ve had giant swaths of words coming close to several thousand that were basically a transitional scene. I had a character who was stuck and needed to kill the whole day. It was boring for him, boring for me, and boring for the reader. All of my critique partners pointed it out, too. So I said well how about instead of doing all that nonsense we just say he spent the day… And summed it up in about 10 words. Worked like a charm.
That’s what I try to do when I can, too. But I get stuck when there are things that actually need to happen in that between time. I’ve tried skipping the scene and having people just talk about those events later… But then it’s even more boring, because it’s not even happening right now; I’ve turned it into backstory! However, when I *can* get away with skipping a whole long boring scene and replacing it with a two-sentence conversation, it’s ice cream and cake time for me!
Middle parts. I write my beginnings and endings before my middles. I know it’s weird. My end conclusions result in giving me the chapters I want to include in my books which will lead up to that ending. 🙂
I agree with all the previous author’s comments. I find first chapters the hardest because I tend to change it a lot and am worried about drawing readers in. Also when my characters get close and are in a romantic or sexual situation. Very graphic language or descriptions turn me off so the balance is hard to achieve. I really think with scenes like that the more you describe the build up the better. We all know the mechanics but it’s what comes before that’s the most different and interesting.
Death scenes of characters who have been with us for a few books and who are very important to the main characters. e.g. A few years ago my Mum came into the kitchen, where I wrote, and found me crying my eyes out. She asked what was wrong and I said. “I killed Marion.” Thank God she knew my characters or things might have got difficult.
I have trouble with backstory. It’s more of a problem limiting the amount and frequency of backstory information. to paraphrase Stephen King, all characters have backstory and most of it is not very interesting.
DAN ALATORRE
23 replies on “What kind scenes are hardest for you to write?”
I find personal anecdotes are hard to write sometimes.
I’d love your views on this piece: https://rinsebeforeuse.wordpress.com/2016/05/19/should-there-be-limits-on-who-becomes-a-parent/
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Exposition. All my beginning scene setting crap, sounds like beginning scene setting crap.
E6
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Ha! Been there.
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Opening scenes. How to get the reader where I am….
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Yep.
Yep yep yep.
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Sexual scenes. I try to write them in when necessary, without trying to write a porno movie. Of course it all depends on the words you use, contrary to words that would heighten your readers sexual appetite. The book I’m working on right now, The Penny Vagina Murders, has a lot of sexual scenes. From the strip club, to the sexual desires of my serial killer, John. I am trying to write it, without turning it into the next Fifty shades of Sex.
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Yep. That can be tricky.
I’ll be s beta for that by the way.
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The boring ones. Or rather, whatever scenes I have a hard time writing tend to end up boring. This usually seems to be because they are “in between” scenes that I know “should” happen between time A and time B, but I don’t really have a vision for them.
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Transitional scenes. I’ve had giant swaths of words coming close to several thousand that were basically a transitional scene. I had a character who was stuck and needed to kill the whole day. It was boring for him, boring for me, and boring for the reader. All of my critique partners pointed it out, too. So I said well how about instead of doing all that nonsense we just say he spent the day… And summed it up in about 10 words. Worked like a charm.
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That’s what I try to do when I can, too. But I get stuck when there are things that actually need to happen in that between time. I’ve tried skipping the scene and having people just talk about those events later… But then it’s even more boring, because it’s not even happening right now; I’ve turned it into backstory! However, when I *can* get away with skipping a whole long boring scene and replacing it with a two-sentence conversation, it’s ice cream and cake time for me!
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Middle parts. I write my beginnings and endings before my middles. I know it’s weird. My end conclusions result in giving me the chapters I want to include in my books which will lead up to that ending. 🙂
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Interesting. I think I do that. I don’t write the ending but I have it planned out.
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That’s interesting. I know many writers who like to ‘pants’ till the end. This is what makes all writers unique. 🙂
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Anything under 1000 words that is only one subject.
#queenoframble
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I agree with all the previous author’s comments. I find first chapters the hardest because I tend to change it a lot and am worried about drawing readers in. Also when my characters get close and are in a romantic or sexual situation. Very graphic language or descriptions turn me off so the balance is hard to achieve. I really think with scenes like that the more you describe the build up the better. We all know the mechanics but it’s what comes before that’s the most different and interesting.
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Opening chapters are difficult because you have to go through and get rid of a lot of stuff so that it starts quickly.
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Death scenes of characters who have been with us for a few books and who are very important to the main characters. e.g. A few years ago my Mum came into the kitchen, where I wrote, and found me crying my eyes out. She asked what was wrong and I said. “I killed Marion.” Thank God she knew my characters or things might have got difficult.
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Yes! Getting the emotions right for seem like that is very difficult. Great point!
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Thanks Dan 🙂
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This is freaking hilarious. Thanks for that.
E6
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I have trouble with backstory. It’s more of a problem limiting the amount and frequency of backstory information. to paraphrase Stephen King, all characters have backstory and most of it is not very interesting.
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We did some posts on that. Maybe they’ll help.
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I’ll check them out. Thanks.
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