The best tip I have for writing sad scenes is to get fully into them. If it makes you cry, you've done the job well. If you don't want to experience these emotions, don't write sad scenes. To guard against melodrama, edit, edit then edit some more. Don't be afraid to have a few goes at the scene, or conflict, or conflict resolution. You'll see your scene get better and better, until it's just perfect.
I've heard that it isn't the actual drama of the person dying, for instance, so much as how the great and heroic characters around *that* character react. It wasn't Wilson drifting off, that broke our hearts. It was how Chuck Noland wept and screamed for him, that got us. Don't be afraid to crush the characters in your book with the loss of a friend or loved one. That is what sells [coughDobby! coughDumbledore!!]
No matter the emotion my prose invokes as I write/reread it, it thrills me. I know I've done a good job with what I've created if I can make myself dewy-eyed, depressed, or what have you. I suppose I'm not a good judge for this whole thing, though, 'cause I've fought depression for half my life and am addicted to feeling bad... So even the saddest, most depressing scenes make me feel good in a weird way. But I can recall scenes in books I've read that are just so horrendously depressing that I have to set the book down to process what's happened. Kudos to those authors. I'm totally getting off topic now. My tips for writing sad and depressing scenes are to understand their place. Look at them in the bigger picture. Focus on how they're making your character better, or your plot better. You wouldn't be writing these scenes if they weren't necessary and didn't make things move forward. Even though this bit sucks, it's for the best. Remember that. To avoid melodrama, keep in mind that less is more. Sometimes silence is a more dramatic answer than words. Sometimes looking away out of shame is more potent, more visceral, than explaining why an action was done. There's just nothing good enough to explain away that action or to convey how guilty a character feels. I suppose it boils down to subtlety and trusting your reader. It, like everything else, is art. I don't really write different types of scenes based off my mood. I just write whatever's next to be worked on no matter how I feel (as long as I'm in the mood to write). There are, however, instances where I get a scene stuck in my head and I have to write it or I'll just be trapped with it and won't be able to focus on anything else. Those scenes normally have something very dramatic or emotional in them that I am just dying to capture in words. They don't happen very often, though. What in stories makes me most sad? Tough call. Seeing hard work collapse fruitlessly around a character I suppose. It's worst when that hard work, the sweat and blood put into it, works against the character. It just seems hopeless for them when they've put their all into something that's only ended up hurting them. They're also some of the greatest moments of characters' lives because something huge has to change for them to move forward and/or succeed. EDIT: GOOD CALL. I love it when characters die for this very reason. It's one of those shining moments in a character's development/life.
Dobby had to be perfect and heroic and brave and emotionally delicate so Rowling could kill him and make us all watch so it would be ten times more horrible when we watched Harry sob. Good shot JKR. Bulls eye. Knife us right in the heart and then give that knife a good twist so we know we are dying.
I have the opposite problem with sad scenes: when I write them, they seem too artificial. I suspect it's because I'm more likely to be angry than sad on a personal level. I suggest you try adding some anger into the mix. Not so much that it compromises the scene, of course. Let me know how it turns out, too, I could use the notes.
Making a terrible scene is important, especially for how the other people react and change because of it. That's why the scene is so painful. Swords- The scene has both a depressing moment for a character, and an instant later, a ruthless moment for the same character, full of anger. Justified, but still angry.
Ditto. If it gets you down too much have a plan of how to counteract those feelings once you're done writing. For me I often go watch comedies.
What do you do when you don't want to continue writing the scene you are writing? Do you force yourself through it or just jump forward, thinking that you will fill in a "bridge" between this scene and the next scene later on? How chronologically do you write? I have a problem right now. I am writing a scene, but I feel kinda stuck on it. I want to jump forwards in the story or maybe take a break from that scene, but I feel bad about it. Right now, I don't feel encouraged to write more on that scene.
I don't think there's a reason to force myself to write linearly just because that seems like the 'proper' way to do it. So if I'm stuck I usually go fowards and sometimes the next scene comes very easily, and may even change the scene before it. And when I go back it's usually easier to write the scene where I got stuck.
Skip it. Write the next scene. Come back to it later and decide if you want it or not. That's my method.
Writing a novel is a huge project and it is unreasonable to think that you will write your first draft exactly as the way it'll be published. Even if you write perfect scenes in perfect chronological order now it might not be so perfect after you have completed the whole first draft because it is very likely that you will make minor/major changes in your original plot. So, you might have to make changes in the scenes and the timeline. Complete the scene you are writing if you can, if not there is not a problem to write some other scene. "I feel bad" is a non-reason, seriously.
If you don't want to write it, you should probably sit back and decide whether you actually need it in the story. If the scene is boring you when you write it, the scene will probably bore the readers when they read it.
Think about it like this: if you finish everything else in the story first and that one scene is the only part you're struggling with, you're already gone pretty far. If things go really bad, you could lose interest in the whole project because of that scene. Don't force yourself to write that scene now. Our subconscious is constantly working, even in our sleep, and that scene could come to you when you least expect it. For a long time I had this habit of polishing and perfecting every scene and every sentence and it can be really frustrating. It really helped me write after I admitted that not every part of the project will be pure genius. Some parts simply do their function by moving the plot forward. I don't know if that is why you're struggling with your scene, but if it is, think about how even great writers write some parts that simply advance the plot and are in no way brilliant on their own.
I always write chronologically. If something's giving me a fit, I take a break, or switch to a different project. Different authors have different methods though, so there's nothing wrong with jumping forward. You could hold off and wait till the editing stage to get back to it even.
^ bingo. It is not how I do it, but if you get stuck, move on. You'll find it when you come back on the re-write and by then your brain will be all ready to do what you need to to make it right. Sometimes I leave things half-written and then come back and mop up the mess later. You know how, when you are cooking or doing a project, you don't clean up as you go, but rather clean up the whole mess at the very end? The scene you are stuck on is that place where you spilled glitter, on the carpet, while scrap-booking. The glitter isn't going anywhere. Leave it alone until it's clean-up time then make the inside of your editing vacuum all festive, for a little while! Then, as a celebration, you can go see if Costco sells glitter in five gallon buckets yet. Nothing says you had a "done with the writing" party quite like fifty pounds of glitter all over the neighborhood.
Sometimes, skipping ahead is the only way to keep from losing forward momentum, but it does have its disadvantages. Character development and plot development are processes that interact with one another. That is, the way in which the plot unfolds will influence, however subtly, the development of your characters (and vice versa). So, if you are at point A, are struggling to get to point B and skip ahead to point C, you may well get past the point at which you are stuck but you may also find that when you go back to A and write your way to B, it becomes more difficult to get from B to C (because one or more characters are a little different at C now than they were when you skipped ahead). Not saying not to do it, just understand that it may not be as simple as just skipping ahead. Good luck.
I know that if I had the discipline, I would totally write out of chronological order and just write out the scenes I want first. I know that I will wind up not going back to the spaces in my story and it will wind up being another unfinished project. You have to make sure that you WILL go back and fill in the blanks. If you can't trust yourself to do that (which I don't trust myself to do) then I would say you should just keep trying the scene you are on. If you know you'll go back then I see no problem with writing out of order.
If you don't feel inspired to write that scene, change it so that it does inspire you, because chances are that if you don't enjoy it, your reader's won't either. To me, one of the most important things is to always be inspired by what I write, so if that inspiration disappears, there's something wrong with what I'm writing. I need to figure out what the problem is and solve it before I move on since the scene might have consequences on the rest of the story and skipping it might cause bigger problems later on. But that's just how I do it; not the way, just a way.
Just me, of course, but if I'm having trouble with a scene, I have to figure out why. Is it needed at all? Am I writing from the wrong POV? Is there too little actually happening (too introspective, too much dialogue)? What makes it difficult for me to write?!? Until I figure it out, I can't move forward - something in that scene may affect the way the rest of the story goes. And if I can continue the story without "fixing" that scene, it probably means I didn't need it to begin with. Bear in mind, I write without outline and revise as I go, so it's all linear and I have to know what's already happened before I know what can happen.
I write it. It may not be the best, but it allows me to move forward. I can (and will) go back and edit/revise/improve it, but having it finished offers the framework to move on, and it's easier for me to mull over and figure on what needs fixing, if anything in that scene/section. But what works for me might not work for you. Good luck moving forward!
In my current project, I was well into a chapter, and struggling, when I realized that the entire chapter was from the wrong POV. I did something I've never done before - went back and revised my outline, then started the chapter from scratch. I didn't even copy and paste from what was already done. I wanted a completely fresh perspective. Now, I'm rolling again. This leads me to another thought, reflecting back on similar previous discussions on this forum. Regardless of how one writes, there seems to be an expectation that once a project is started, continuing the forward momentum requires the writer to keep writing...something. But in my current project, I have come to understand that "forward momentum" exists on many different levels. The basic storyline was written and outlined over a year ago, after much background reading had been done. Since then, I've written three historical chapters and the entire "present day" story. And yet I have stopped and redone the outline twice, with other revisions in between, stopped to create a geneology chart, assemble maps, update character lists and with each major historical event that serves as background to my story, I've stopped to go back and reread the materials I have on them, recheck my notes and do one last 'net search to see if there is anything I've missed (especially important with any historical figures who appear in the novel). Of course, each time I resume the actual writing, I have to "read my way back" to a certain extent, and at such times I have to resist the temptation to edit. All of those might be seen as interruptions in the writing process, but I see them more as integral parts of it.
I find that once I consider a chapter "stuck" it is best to move on to other parts of the whole. A day or a week later that set aside part gets a fresh eye and much revision. I often rework a 3000 word chapter a dozen times, and it usually winds up as 1000. Writing a novel is like building a house. First the blueprint, then the foundation, frame, and roof. The rooms then get walls and floors, plumbing and electric before the paint and carpeting goes on. Since you are doing all of these tasks, you need to move from room to room, until the house is ready for occupation. Sorry if this sounds a bit like Jerzy Kosinski's "Being There"!
