When to Cut, When to Write

Six secrets to writing scenes of perfect length.

- PETER MOUNTFORD

If you're like me, when you started writing, you followed rudimentary instincts on all craft questions. Characters simply appeared out of thin air; they did things (or they didn't!). The setting was described. Sometimes. Eventually, inevitably, in my case, a character stood at the window, arms akimbo (why always akimbo?) and stared, deep in thought.

At last, I realized I was making hundreds of craft decisions, and without rationale. In fact, every word was a decision. Who put all these adverbs in my story?!

The first craft element I deliberately started controlling was pacing. Specifically, scene length. Finally, I could rush past boring things and slow down to savor the more delicious moments.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty here, it's useful to think about averages.

What Is a Scene?

Scenes—specific moments in a character's life represented with some amount of vividness—vary in length from a single sentence to a whole book.

Nicholson Baker's entire first novel, The Mezzanine, is structured around a single, short scene. The narrator, on his lunch break, rides the office escalator where he works, and much of the book concerns his thoughts during this brief experience.

Most scenes contain some dialogue—we're social animals, and human interactions provide complex, lively drama. In screenplays, the general recommendation is that scenes not exceed three pages, which is three minutes of screentime.

Most scenes in novels aren't longer than 3-4 pages (500-1,000 words), though, of course, there are many wonderful situations that call for much longer scenes, which we'll get to later.

In fact, many personal essays and short stories are composed of what I call mini scenes or fragments of time, often used as specific examples of a concept.