help... please?

[mikkeneko]

Okay. I figured out what's wrong with me.

SHUT UP. I mean, I figured out why I haven't been able to write anything lately that's longer than one scene or four pages, whichever comes first.

I've forgotten how to do scene breaks.

I'm serious. I can't do them any more. I keep trying to follow my characters through every little detail of their lives, from one scene to the next and the next. I can't cut out any more. I always feel like I'm leaving a huge hole in my story if I ever skip from one setting to another. I used to be able to do these. Why have I forgotten?

Writers out there, please help! How do you do it?

Comments

[windandwater.livejournal.com]

... I have scene breaks?

Oh. Yes. I don't know, scene breaks just come naturally to me. It's something you can feel. I usually try to end on some sort of snappy one-liner or a poignant moment that relates to the rest of the chapter as a whole.

[mikkeneko.livejournal.com]

I think I can still end chapters well... but what if you're doing a longish fic involving action and you need the characters to move from one place to another/ How are you supposed to skip over all that intervening time?