There is nothing worse than a flat scene.

Sure, every scene should change something for the main character or the main story. But what if you’ve done that, and your scene still has about as much life (and appeal) as a soggy loaf of bread?

Each scene in a novel is as important as the next (if not, why is it there?) and each one needs to grab the reader’s attention completely, while moving the story forward.

Check out these 24 quick fixes to make your scenes more readable, more engaging, and give your readers that can’t-put-it-down book experience they’re looking for:

1. Give your character an extra goal: something small they can do in this scene or the next.
2. Build in mundane actions.
3. Create an obstacle for your character.
4. Bring in another of your character’s values.
5. Explore your character’s thoughts.
6. Give a supporting character a unique voice.
7. Explore supporting character’s goals, motivations, and values
8. Have another character act against the main character.
9. Explore how your character’s backstory changes this scene.
10. Introduce a unique object.
11. Describe the scene in a unique way.
12. Drop a clue, either about backstory or what will happen.
13. Have your character dwell on how the current problem is the result of a decision they made previously.
14. Experiment with different POV.
15. Create stress by pitting two or more values against each other.
16. Break up sentences into shorter sentences to increase pacing and the sense of excitement or anxiety.
17. Lace descriptions with the mood of your character.
18. Force the character to make an uncomfortable decision.
19. Have the character take action from their uncomfortable decision.
20. Make sure whatever can go wrong does go wrong.
21. Play with sentence structure to put the emphasis at the beginning and end of the sentence.
22. Avoid verbs that take a reader out of the scene, verbs like “He was” “He looked” “He thought” etc.
23. Decide if this scene needs to be there at all.
24. Determine if this scene will fit elsewhere in the narrative. Sometimes putting it in a different spot will allow it to be more interesting.

PS, Next week, I’m recording a new version of Pick Up The Pen, my five day challenge to help you write better scenes. You’ll be able to tune in and ask questions on the Story Coaching Facebook Group, so make sure you are a member there if you’re not already, and watch your email inbox for details.