Scene Level Edit - Checklist for Writers

Develop your Self-Editing Skills and Level-Up your Writing Craft

Learning how to self-edit your writing is an essential step in becoming a professional writer. Once you have developed the basics of self-editing, not only can you bring your written manuscripts up to the level readers expect but your future first drafts become cleaner and much more polished. By developing your internal self-editor, you’ll start the writing process with better first drafts, which will save you time and even money, in the long run.

This blog post is part of the Revision Levels Series. After a brief review of the three levels of self-editing a manuscript, we will dive deeper into Scene Level Editing — the middle stage of self-editing. I am also offering a free printable Scene Level Checklist. Use the printable as a quick reference guide to keep the skills fresh in your mind as you edit and write.

An editor can help polish your manuscript. Notice I wrote ‘help polish’. The editor will not revise your story for you. A good editor will show you what to fix but it is up to you to do the work and revise your manuscript per the editor’s advice. If you plan to query your manuscript, you do not need to hire an editor. You could study revision techniques shared in craft books, blogs (such as this one), or YouTube videos. I have done all of the above and am very happy to save you time by sharing my favorite resources throughout this blog for your further study.

The best way to develop any kind of new skill is with practice. Once the skill is learned, it will become more natural to you when you are writing the next first draft. Self-editing your writing happens in seperate levels. The three Revision Levels are best approached in this order: Story Level, Scene Level, and Line Level.

Side note: You could find critique partners and beta readers to swap feedback. Two pieces of advice before sending your story to another person for critique: 1. (Repeating for effect) It is up to you to do the work and revise your story. Critiquers will only point out what isn’t working and if you are lucky they will tell you why. 2. Always send the cleanest copy of your manuscript to your readers. It should be scene and line edited first or else the reader will not be able to see the forest through the tangle of trees. This blog is going to cover the scene level edit basics that you should follow first before sending your story out for feedback.

Story Level

We start with the big picture edit at the Story Level, making sure the character arc and the plot are solid. This is often known as the developmental edit. This is where we determine if our story is on the correct path and determine a plan of action for the changes needed to fix the overall structure of our storytelling.

Scene Level

Next, we work on editing at the Scene Level, making sure each scene is doing it’s job to move the story forward. Each scene should have a specific purpose so that it keeps the reader turning pages. This is the subject of this blog post and covers checking things such as Pace, Setting, and Stakes.

Line Level

The finally step is the Line Level Edit. At this level, we edit our writing on a word by word, line by line, and paragraph by paragraph level. It is a long process but in the end is the key to reader enjoyment. The Line Level Edit is where you ensure that sentences flow and your story is refined. You can read more about the Line Level Editing here.

How To Use This Checklist

Each item on the checklist should be address seperately as its own editing task. You can start at the top and move down the checklist or approach the revision in an order that works best for you. Learn how to fix a specific item by studying what to look for and then go through your manuscript making the edits. Move scene by scene fixing each item on the checklist or concentrate on one item throughout the manuscript before moving on to the next. Once you practice improving each item on the checklist seperately, then you can later combined items after you have trained yourself on spotting the edits.

1. Pacing or Scene Balance

Pacing can vary from story to story, but within a story the pacing should be consistently steady throughout. There are even pace expectaions for every story genre. The expected pace for a romance is very different than science fiction. The pace may even be the exact reason some readers favor one type of story over another (and when the pace is off, the readers will tell you).

Some places within your scenes can (and should) quicken the reading pace, such as dialogue and action. However, when you are checking your scene to scene pacing, you are improving the overall story flow and reader experience. It can be jarring for a reader to have one scene in a story move at the pace of a ballerina on rocketfuel and then the next move slower than grass grows in winter.

The way to fix pacing issues is to balance each scene by using varied story elements that keep the readers interest in your story. Elements such as Description, Internalization/Thoughts, and Backstory can slow the pace, while Dialogue, Action, and Reactions can quicken it. Combine all of these so each scene has a mix which allows the readers eyes to flow across the page at the pace they are accustom to for your genre of story.

The first way to get good at story pace is to read a lot in the genre you are writing. While you are reading, pay attention to the pace. To check the Pacing in your draft, break out the highlighters! Go here for a fun exercise to help you get the scene balance just right. Your readers will shout your praises for crafting a well-paced story.

2. Clear Conflict/Stakes

Story conflict and stakes are not just for thrillers and murder mysteries. All stories have the ultimate stakes of life or death in one of the following categories: occupational, social/relationships, physical, or emotional. If the character doesn’t change by the end of the story, there is death. If the character changes, there is life. These major stakes are what make stories exciting.

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The conflicts that the characters face in each scene pushes them towards making the decision to change. When you reread a scene, the conflict should be clear. The conflict could be internal or external. If you can not identify the conflict, the entire scene might be irrelevant to the story. Time to do some trimming or serious rewriting.

One of my favorite resources for being crystal clear about the conflict and stakes of my stories is Conflict & Suspense written by James Scott Bell.

3. Use of Tension

If you have ever been reading a story where you felt like it was a chore to turn the page and keep going, it could be that the story lacked tension. Cliffhangers are obvious tension points at the end of a scene. But you need tension to get the reader turning pages through the scene or they will never reach the cliffhanger ending.

You can create tension by making the goal of the main character(s) clear to the reader in each scene. We will keep reading to see what happens. Will they or won’t they reach their goal? You amplify the tension by placing obstacles which keep the goal out of reach. This is conflict. These obstacles could be another character’s conflicting goal, setting, surprises, or diversions. These conflicts should highlight the character growth throughout the story. The ultimate tension is the looming stakes for the main character(s). At the scene level, we are turning up the tension on the character as they edge closer to the life or death stakes.

4. Crowded Room

Sometimes the wonderful side characters we create serve no purpose in the story. They are great characters, except they aren’t essential. They can even be a distraction from the main character and their story arc. Yikes! We do not want that.

I think you might have heard about the way to fix the issue of the crowded room before now. Let’s say it together: Kill Your Darlings. (Or you could store them in a oxygen-rich chamber in case it’s possible to successfully revive them for a later story.) Another option could be to combine two-three side characters into one side character. This gives more purpose to the few essential side characters that you keep.

5. Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is generally an area that needs additions rather then cuts during your scene level edit. We generally do not know what clues and hints are essential to drop and where to drop them as we write the first draft - unless you are a champion plotter. This might be one of the easiest fixes of the scene edit. It might also be the most fun. (Cue maniacal laugh.)

6. Character Agency

In every scene, your main character needs to want something. Hopefully this is a relatable want that the reader can invest in to keep them turning the page. What the character wants might not be good for them (it may even be an obstacle to the real journey of the story) but it needs to be clear to the reader. If you come across a scene in your manuscript without a clear want for your character, it likely needs to be cut.

7. Character Growth

If you have nailed the character agency, your characters will grow and change. As the story goes, things will get harder and harder until something gives and the ultimate story lesson is learned. Your character could make a change for the better in a happily ever after story or they could make a change for the worse in a tragedy. No matter what, you have taken them on a journey until it is unavoidable that they need to adjust what they want in order to get the thing they truly need. By the end of the story, the character has grown into a different person.

8. Vivid Settings

Use your senses to work the details of the setting into the scenes to give your reader an enriching experience. Transport us by showing us the setting as the character interacts with it. If you come across a paragraph in your scene that is all descriptive setting, consider how you can mix the details into action and dialogue.

One of my favorite resources for creating settings that feel real to the reader is Writing Vivid Settings written by Rayne Hall. This guidebook can help you craft intense, realistic, and intriguing settings.

9. Full Emotional Arc

Emotions are powerful. We read in order to feel, so your characters emotions need to be clear to the reader. You can do this through body language, thoughts, or dialogue. It is also essential to show change in emotions. Even stories about artificial intelligence find a way to show emotional change.

Think about the emotional changes within each scene. Think about the emotional reactions the characters have throughout the scene. A character’s emotions could be the obstacle of a scene. Or the setting could define the mood and enhance the emotion of a scene. This growth in the main characters emotions is what gives them the confidence at the end of the story to defeat the antagonist.

10. Unnecessary Details

The most common unnecessary detail is backstory. Backstory shapes the character and makes them who they are when we first meet them, but the reader does not need a flashback trip down memory lane in every story. If they do, perhaps the story was started in the wrong place. If you can weave the essential details from the past into the current timeline of the story, you will have much happier readers.

Another possible trouble area full of unnecessary detail is infodumping in the setup of the story. The beginning scenes of the story usually get the most attention from writers because we tend to overwrite in the beginning to learn-as-we-go about our characters. Sharpen your scissors and get to cutting in the early scenes to tighten up your overall storytelling.

Clean First Drafts

After you have practiced scene editing, you will begin to notice a change in the way you write. You will start to create cleaner first drafts.

If you are like me, a visual reminder in my writing space can assist with keeping these types of line edits fresh in your mind. After you save this post, I also recommend printing my Scene Edit Checklist. It’s a free PDF download the size of a bookmark. I print this on cardstock paper. I find that this bookmark size is perfect to tack up near my computer monitor, which keeps the list right in my line of sight and fresh in my mind.

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