Here’s something I’ve been noticing lately with my students: a lot of really good writers are getting lost in their own narrative. In other words, they’re telling their story – and beautifully! But they’re telling it, not showing it (that old cliché of show don’t tell). We, the readers, are removed emotionally from the story because there are no scenes – no door for us to enter into what’s going on, the details and the emotion.

Fully rendered scenes show us the colors, (both literally and figuratively) of your story. Think of a door into what you’re writing about and invite the reader in.  Create a scene. See it as a movie clip in your head.  We want to know what the sofa looks like, what’s going on in the other room, down the road. What are the smells, the sounds? The weather? We need to see the people, what they’re wearing, hear them, not only what they’re saying, but also the long pauses, the awkward awful moments, the moments when there’s nothing left to say. 

Right now I’m reading Bernard Cooper’s hilarious and poignant memoir The Bill from My Father.  He’s a gorgeous writer, and can also show you how important scenes are. You’re right there with Cooper and his father in this book; you’re not being told about their relationship from a distance.

Think about the story you’re writing – fiction or non-fiction.  Where can you slow down and set a scene? You can of course also do flashbacks within the scene, and include memories or anything else you need to.  But first hook the reader, set up a scene, show us what’s at stake in that scene, make us wonder what’s going to happen next.