by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Transitions are one of those things that, when they work, are nearly invisible to readers. When they don’t work (they’re choppy, wordy, or completely absent), they can pull readers right out of a story.
Here are a few problems that I’ve noticed as a reader…and a few that I’ve struggled with as a writer, too:
Transitions that ramble on and on. In the right kind of book, this may actually work to a degree, although I think it can be easily overused. It doesn’t really work at all in my genre…it would kill the pacing: The summer’s heat finally gave way to fall’s gentler temperatures. Trees shed their leaves and children packed their book bags and headed back to class…
Forward leaps in time with little explanation. It might be that a book suddenly picks up weeks later in the story. What’s happened in the interim? Why couldn’t the missing weeks be cut out…why were they even necessary? Should the action in the book be more condensed?
Overly-detailed shadowing of a character to get them from one place to another. Clara walked to the door. She opened it and strolled out to her car, thinking about what she’d just heard from her mother. She turned the key in the ignition and slowly backed out of her driveway, checking her mirror. She decided she would go to the grocery store and pick up a gallon of ice cream. At this point I’m really just thinking how boring Clara is and how much I want to escape her company. The readers can assume how Clara got to the store. The writer could just start out with: A few minutes later, Clara headed to the grocery store for some ice cream.
For further reading on transitions:
Dressing and Dining from Theresa at Edittorent
How to Create Smooth Scene Transitions from Jason Black
How to Move Smoothly Through Your Novel from Janice Hardy
Do you notice transitions as a reader? Is it something you’ve found challenging as a writer?
Tips for Better Story Transitions: Share on XPhoto on VisualHunt.com
The latter drives me crazy so hopefully I don’t do it in my own writing.
If it drives you crazy, I’m sure you don’t! Hope you have a great week, Alex. :)
You’re right, Elizabeth. As a reader, I don’t think about transitions unless they’re not done well. And that means that, as a writer, I have to do them well if I’m expecting the story to be a good one. It’s not an easy thing to do, though. I’ve found that it helps if they fall out naturally from the story (e.g. a character goes somewhere in a car, or a character has a ‘remember when’ conversation with someone to lead to scene from the past).
That’s a great approach, Margot, to ease a reader through it!
I’ve read enough submissions that I’ve seen a ton of bad transitions.
I can only imagine, ha!
I hate transitions, LOL. I usually give indications about what’s going to happen at the end of the scene, and then we end up there. For the genre I was writing in — romance — that worked pretty well. But since I started writing in a new genre — sci-fantasy — I’ve felt like the standard, at least in what I’ve read, is to talk through the transitions more, in part because the genre leans so heavily on world-building. But this is a good reminder to pull back from that, so thanks for this post :-)
Glad it helped, Deb, and congratulations on the new genre! That’s exciting. :)
Hi Elizabeth – I probably don’t know why I don’t like a chapter, or a book, just starts to disinterest me, or the writing is odd … but now you’ve mentioned transitions I’ll be looking out for them – when I read a novel again. Take care – Hilary
Thanks for coming by, Hilary, and hope you’re doing well!
I often catch those sloppy transitions during editing when I have my laptop’s robotic voice read to me. I remember struggling with that time jump for one story and finally realized saying “Three days later, …” worked just fine :)
I keep reading that the read-to-me function on laptops and phones is really great for editing!
Whenever I think about transitions, I think about my kids watching Spongebob Squarepants on TV and the French narrator going, “42 hours and 3 seconds later…” :)
I struggle with transitions. Fortunately my stories start and end in about a two week time-span :)
Now *that’s* a tight, fast-paced story!