This week: The Scenes After the Scene Edited by: Jayne 🕸️ 🕷️  
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| Hi, I'm Jayne. I'll be your editor today. |
I love a good “big scene.” Every reader wants something with impact: explosions, confessions, betrayals, revelations, or kisses that solve nothing. Truth be told, I’m not a fan of the last one, but I’m not much of a hopeless romantic—definitely not in the Hallmark Channel’s core demographic. If you are, awesome. You’ll know how big those moments really can be.
No matter what kind of drama you like, those moments don’t end at the scene cut. They carry into the rest of the story, but it’s easy to think the story has already done its job. The twist! The chaos! The truth! I am a genius writer!
You probably are. But even great writers can linger too long or move on too fast after a large-scale event. Lingering destroys tension and risks dragging your story into melodrama. Moving too fast skips over the consequences, potentially denying the reader a resolution.
The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle, and it looks different for every writer. The key is making it work for you.
Why Aftermath Matters
With few exceptions, readers want to feel the weight of what happened. This doesn’t mean you need to wrap things up with perfect closure (that’s a whole different topic). It means showing a shift in perspective.
What do your characters absorb, learn, deny, defend, or regret? Delving into your characters’ core arcs—and really embracing them—requires restraint. Without it, you risk slipping into caricature.
Restraint Is Power
Don’t feel pressured to “show how important it was.” Your readers are smarter than that; they already know the event had weight. Resist the temptation to over-describe, to have every character cry, rage, or philosophize about what it all meant.
Silence, stillness, or a desperate attempt to maintain the status quo are all valuable, realistic reactions. They give your characters somewhere to land and give readers space to feel what you’re showing them. Readers may not react the same way, but if the character’s reaction feels real, they’ll empathize.
Plot Needs Breathing Room
Aftermath scenes aren’t the place for tropey fillers. Next steps don’t have to be perfectly logical, but they do have to be internally consistent with your characters and world. You can achieve this without pages of reflection or description by keeping your plot focused on motion and intent.
Give your characters purpose—even if that character is wandering aimlessly. They’re still contributing something to the story, even if they don’t know what that something is.
Keep your word count tight and your POVs intimate, and you’ll carry the weight of the event through the story with nuance, giving your reader a richer, more resonant experience.
As always, happy writing. |
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Drama: October 29, 2025 Issue [#13425]
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