Why you should write scenes, not chapters

Plotting and writing a string of chapters long enough to fill a book is daunting. It’s impossible to know how many chapters you’ll need. And it’s impossible to order all of your chapters before you start writing and feeling your way around. That’s why it’s much easier to write your first draft in scenes instead of chapters.

And, no, scenes and chapters aren’t the same.

The difference between scenes and chapters

Scenes and chapters serve different purposes.

Scenes are mini stories that stick together and form an overarching story. Each scene should have its own beginning, middle, and end – and a complete arc of change.
Chapters are arbitrary divisions that you strategically place to decide how readers experience your story.

So, one scene can make up one chapter. Or a chapter might hold lots of small scenes that build up to a climactic moment. Or you might divide a tense scene across three chapters. This is why a chapter can be any length.

3 reasons to write scenes, not chapters, in your first draft

There are three main reasons to write in scenes, rather than chapters, in your early drafts.

1. It's easier to plan your novel with scenes

It’s easier to plan your novel by plotting scenes rather than chapters. This way, you only need to think about each story event, not how you’ll divide your novel for your readers’ benefit. That can come later.

2. Writing in scenes takes the stress out of writing chapters

Lots of writers worry about writing chapters ‘the right way’ during their first drafts.

But trying to achieve the perfect chapter format (often, opening with the perfect hook and ending on a cliffhanger) too early can stunt your progress and even stop you from finishing your first draft.

Writers who obsess over chapter structure tend to end up with poor scene structures because everything in between the chapter intro and outro falls flat.

So, don’t worry about transitions until later. Instead, write separate mini stories. You can find the most interesting divides to structure your stories into chapters in your later drafts, placing these divides at crucial moments or where characters are about to make important decisions.

3. It's easier to spot weak material

When writing scenes rather than chapters, it’s easier to spot weak sections of text.

These are much harder to spot when they’re embedded in chapters. But when you separate your novel into specific scenes, the sections that don’t serve the story or progress the plot will stick out, and it’ll be much easier to omit them.

These are often scenes that are full of backstory of infodumps.

Ready to write

Once you’re happy with your scenes, you’ll be in a much better place to separate and combine scenes into chapters.

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About Charlotte

Charlotte is an award-winning writer and line/copyeditor who writes and edits for clients all over the world. She also works on the fiction team for Ambit, a UK literary and arts magazine.

She holds an international literary prize from Hammond House Publishing Group, two writing-related degrees, various marketing certifications, and training certificates from the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, of which she is a Professional Member.

Charlotte’s work has appeared in several anthologies, magazines, and literary journals, including Indigomania, Dream Catcher, and The Curlew.

She has also created a series of free self-editing cheat sheets to help new writers hone their fiction before sending their work off to a professional editor.