Comments on: How Long Should a Scene in a Novel Be?

By: Akil

Akil — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 21:12:50 +0000

Thanks pal.
The scene length is dependent on the scene’s goal, conflict etc. However your attempt gave a good ball park so that beginners avoid ridiculously long scenes.

By: Stephanie Orges

Stephanie Orges — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 01:04:31 +0000

In reply to Rob. Thanks, Rob! Glad I could help. : )

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 21:29:57 +0000

Starting NaNoWriMo tomorrow and I’ve never written any fiction before. (Yikes on Halloween:) Been outlining for a couple of weeks and reading books. So having some idea about the range of scene length in words gives me one more little parameter to judge how I’m doing.

And hooray for web sites that preserve this wisdom and search engines that let us find it. (This article popped up as number one in my first search on this subject.

Now I’m going to check out more of this web site.

Thanks

By: Stephanie Orges

Stephanie Orges — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 23:06:16 +0000

In reply to Yana Nova. There's no rule that says it can't be 2k. Long scenes can be good! As long as your beta readers or critique partners don't get bored reading it, I'd say don't worry about it!

By: Yana Nova

Yana Nova — Sat, 03 Sep 2016 16:41:30 +0000

The latest scene I’ve written is around 2k long.
I don’t want to cut anything because I feel it’s all useful and relevant and also, the whole thing is actually pretty good. I tried splitting it up, tried adding some parts of it to other scenes- which doesn’t work. Should I leave it? Is it far too long?