As your fiction writing becomes more skilled it’s important to know how to blend scene and narration for a better reader experience.
Writing Tip for Today: Here are some things to consider when blending scene and narration:
Rule of Three
As with a lot of writing skills, I think the Rule of Three is a good way to train yourself to blend scene and narration. You can review other posts about this “rule” here.
What I mean is that by inserting no more than three sentences (or paragraphs if it’s a literary story or novel) of narration—either in the POV character’s head or in an omnipresent narrator—before jumping back into the action.
Writers tend to either write all scenes or all narration. Learning to blend these two approaches helps readers imagine scenes and gives them the depth that narration provides. Be careful not to go far beyond this Rule of Three to balance your fiction.
Enlightenment v. Distraction
Ask yourself if the moment in the story needs more narration to help readers understand motivation or tension/conflict. If the added narration goes on too long, readers will forget what the scene was about.
If readers must rush from one scene to the next with no narration for motivations or conflicts, the fiction can feel shallow. All scene with no narration tends to portray characters as surface or stereotyped. Readers want to identify in some way with the protagonist to root for them.
Add too much narration and the story can feel like a monologue. Readers do crave action over explanations, so learning to weave or blend the two elements can make readers feel more satisfied. This gives them a more well-rounded picture of the story and its characters.
Readers will want to see what happens if they believe a character faces high enough stakes in pursuit of the goal.
Point of View Matters
Your character’s Point of View (first, third or omniscient) is critical to how you will blend scenes with narration. In Third Limited POV (the most common) adding in the narration of motivations and conflict or tension gives that in-depth experience for readers.
In Deep POV First Person, the entire POV combines scene with a running narration by that First Person character. The advantage is in-depth knowledge of that character’s attitudes, goals and motives. The drawback can be limiting what other characters think or react to in any given scene.
No matter which POV you choose, keep in mind that readers will want to see what happens if they believe a character faces high enough stakes in pursuit of the goal. You can help readers root for your character by blending your scenes with short (Rule of Three!) bits of narration that give them understanding and sympathy for the character and their goal.
