In a previous post, I talked about color coding my scene list by stakes. That’s only one of the ways I use my scene list, which is really a super handy all purpose tool to look at a book’s structure in all sorts of ways. (To review, it’s just a list of all scenes in order, with a short phrase naming each scene.)
Another way I’ve used it that came in really handy on my current revision is to use the scene list to break the book up into arcs or acts.
I look at the scene list and try to identify turning points in the book, and map out arcs connecting those turning points. You can look at varying sizes of arcs, from a few major acts to lots of shorter arcs—whatever’s useful to you—and even nest them if you want to get fancy. For my current round of revisions on THE TETHERED MAGE, I wound up identifying 10 arcs of varying sizes.
After I identify these turning points, I break up my working copy of my scene list accordingly, and I try to name or label each section based on its overall arc. If I can’t identify an overall direction, or I want to label a section “A Bunch of Random Stuff Happens,” it probably means I have a bunch of disconnected scenes without a clear through line. (This happened to me on this latest pass, and it was super useful to catch it so I could find/make a through line.)
Here are a few of the redacted-for-spoilers labels for my current working arcs in THE TETHERED MAGE, for example:
- Meet [REDACTED], Your New Problem
- [REDACTED] Is Getting Worse And Maybe It’s [REDACTED]’s Fault? LOOK ALL THESE THINGS ARE CONNECTED!
- Starting to Figure Stuff Out & Have Victories & Solve Stuff…
- OH WAIT NO EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL
(Those aren’t consecutive, except for the last two.)
For other projects and past drafts, I’ve sometimes used more specifically descriptive phrases, as opposed to the more abstract and structural ones above. Here’s a made-up example of this approach:
- Part One: Searching for the Golden Potato
- Part Two: Potato Found, but Stolen by Void Bunnies!
- Part Three: Hunting Down the Void Bunnies
- Part Four: NOPE! Running From the Void Bunnies
- Part Five: All Seems Lost (Void Bunny Ambush & Aftermath)
- Part Six: Unlocking the Inner Potato (It Was Within You All Along)
- Part Seven: Stealing Back the Golden Potato
- Part Eight: Void Bunnies Destroy Seattle
- Part Nine: Unleashing the Golden Potato
- Part Ten: Post-Potato-splosion Wrapup (soup w/leeks & bacon, mmm)
It’s kind of like the scene list zoomed farther out.
In addition to helping spot structural issues, I also find breaking up the scene list into sections to be really helpful for tackling my edits in bite-sized chunks. For instance, if one of the 25 things I want to work on in this revision is strengthening character X’s voice, and character X doesn’t appear until my 3rd arc, I don’t even have to worry about that item on my list until I get to that section.
It helps me manage the revision a piece at a time, without having to juggle too many things in my tiny brain. And I can identify what I most want to focus on in each arc, and keep that focus in mind as I revise that section.
I’m sure there are a ton of other ways you could use this, too — and other writers probably have their own variations on this technique. I like making lists, because that’s how my brain works. Some people may prefer to map out acts more visually, or go crazy with sticky notes, or make an Excel spreadsheet, or name their cats after various plot themes and throw out some catnip mice and see what happens.
Some people may even be so awesome they can keep track of all this stuff in their head and not need 32 pages of notes to do a revision. (HA HA WHAT KIND OF LOSER HAS A 32 PAGE REVISION PLAN ANYWAY? NOT ME.) (*Switches tabs while you’re not looking*)
For me, though, the scene list is the X-Ray that lets me look at my story’s skeleton. And this is one way to make sure everything’s all connected properly, and not just a loose pile of bones.
Melissa Caruso 