What's your point?

Each scene needs to serve a purpose. Can you identify yours?

Remember: Each scene, each chapter, each sentence needs to be doing something—ideally more than one thing. Advancing the plot, revealing information, telling us about the characters. Too often we get caught up in the weeds of our storytelling and we forget that we’re creating a garden.

Here’s an excerpt from THE GODDESSES by Swan Huntley.

Chuck and I bought chicken wraps at Safeway and took them to the park at the Old Airport. Picnicking was something we had done a lot in the beginning of our relationship. We sat at a green picnic table under a tree. I faced the ocean. Chuck faced the mountain. “I can’t tell if those are clouds or if it’s fog,” he said, and took a bite.

“Do you remember how we used to have picnics?” I asked.

“Of course.” Chuck smiled. The lines on his face. The age spots forming at his hairline. He looked so much older now. We both looked so much older now.

Chuck’s keychain was on the table. He pulled out the blade of his Swiss army knife.

“What are you doing?”

“Remember when we carved our names into the rocks in Point Loma?” With one stroke he scratched half a heart into the table.

“I remember,” I said.

Then he scratched the other half Inside the heart, he wrote it simply: N + C. The C was the hardest part. It came out looking jagged. “There,” he said.

After lunch we looped around the walking path, which was surrounded by a community garden ...

Notice that the author mentions they bought lunch at Safeway, which is where Chuck works, and then briefly describes the scene as they eat together. Huntley mentions that Chuck takes a bite, but that’s the last we hear of lunch until they decide to take a walk. Huntley moves them from lunch to their walk with two simple words: After lunch.

As writers, we are compelled to report all the goings-on. We might describe how they unwrapped their sandwiches. Explain how Chuck took a bite and then she took one, too. Have them walk to the trash can and toss their wrappers inside. We may even fall into a long narrative about the Hawaiian landscape where they have their meal. But the scene is intended to tell us something about the characters and their history in relation to where they are now. Huntley is selective about the information she conveys. She has a clear understanding of what she wants this scene to accomplish.

When you get to the end of a scene or chapter in your book, ask yourself—What is this scene doing? Does it need to be here? If so, why? Does it advance the narrative? Reveal new information? Can the reader see the garden I’ve created or do I need to pull some weeds?