What Makes a Memorable Scene?

I’ve been writing and organizing my scenes a lot this week on my current book in progress. I’m just over halfway through the draft of my current book. It’s going a little slower because of changes at my day job that limit my time to write. Even with those limits, I’ve taken time to think a lot about stories. I’ve been thinking a lot about characters, and this week, I’ve been concentrating on the setting and the milieu of the scenes.

Thinking about what makes the books I’ve really enjoyed stand out helps me see things I hope to do better in my own stories. Some of my favorite books take place in strange worlds. But it isn’t just that. What really makes them stand out is they way that world is presented.

I’ve tried to incorporate simple, efficient descriptions of the scenes, using all five scenes. Thinking through experiences I’ve had in the past, I can use them to better my writing. I remember getting off an airplane in a foreign country years ago and noticing the smell of the car exhaust, along with the sounds of the cars and motorcycles. Funny as it may be, I remember the way the air tasted.

As I write my current book, I have other documents with detailed descriptions of the scenes and characters to draw from. I really like writing. In my busy day job, taking time before work, at lunch, and in the evenings helps me unclutter my mind. It keeps my stress level down and gives me an escape.

Check out some of my other books on Amazon.

My last book, Collected Lives, takes place near the end of the twenty-second century, with vacations and tourism to Earth by off-worlders controlled by major corporations. The largest corporation, Collected Lives, has several enemies. The story follows the events as four people from different portions of Collected Lives’ process are thrown into the middle of a larger problem.

My fantasy, A Map, a Mage, and a Sacrifice, is set in a world with ancient technology where sacrifice of lifeforce brings magical power. The greater the pain and suffering, the greater the magical energy generated. The Forty mages controlling the empire use voluntary sacrifice of the citizens to generate power they use to protect and defend the empire. But their rule may be coming to a close.

Malignance, my third book in my time travel series that began with Resonance and Dissonance, is on Amazon as a kindle and a paperback. That was a fun series to write, and for now, it is completed. I have also placed all three books from that series into one volume titled The Machina of Time.

If you’re looking for a science fiction story, try my book The Promise of Dust, which takes place in a cloud city floating in the atmosphere of Venus. Or Progenitor’s Legacy: Deceit, which takes place many years in the future on a tidally locked world that orbits a red dwarf and has been reached by humanity in their search for the alien progenitors who seeded the galaxy with nano machines.

If a young adult science fiction is more to your liking, check out my series This New Earth, that starts with Demons of a Dead World and Secrets of a Dead World.

If you are looking for a young adult fantasy, check out my book The Threads Unbound.