As you draft your novel, you may decide to skip certain scenes and come back to them later. If you do, a placeholder scene will help you see the story arc more clearly, as well as create a marker that says, “Hey, don’t forget about me.” Caution: If you use these placeholders, resist the temptation to “cherry pick,” that is, to write only the scenes in which you are interested or are pivotal. If you do, then in revisions you’ll be faced with a long list of less exciting scenes to write.
Writing Tip for Today: Placeholder scenes can have as much or as little detail as you wish, but here’s what they look like for me.

• In placeholder scenes, I include the characters, the setting and the purpose of the scene. Sometimes I also jot down the scene’s outcome or the reaction of the POV character.
• Placeholder scenes are great for scenes in which I haven’t yet fine tuned the plot point the scene illustrates. I know something like x needs to happen, but I’m still thinking about the how and the why of it.
• As I’m leaving notes to plant a character, situation or characteristic, I’ll often use a placeholder scene to help me flesh out that plant later on.

Try This! Find a novel you’ve read recently and admired. For the first two or three chapters of the book, jot down these elements: characters in the scene and which is POV; the setting; action of the scene, and the POV character’s reaction to the scene (happy, sad, mad?). Now try writing a similar summary for one of your WIP’s scenes.