Thread by @Massawyrm

It is often said that the hardest part of learning to write is learning when to enter and leave a scene. ENTER LATE, LEAVE EARLY is the common wisdom. But what exactly does that mean?

(a thread)

When entering a scene, you want to try and enter as close to the ending of it - first new change or bit of relevant information - as possible. If a character is going to the police station to report a crime, don't start with them in the parking lot unless something happens there.

We always want to be giving the audience new information - information that either moves along or further defines the story or its characters. So the first thing NEW is where you should be taking us.

Then you want to end a scene at the very last new piece of information. If a situation or character has changed, and that's the last really relevant thing to happen in that scene, get out as fast as you can.

What you want to avoid is the awkward English Goodbye - when you say goodbye to someone and then end up walking the same direction awkwardly until one of you gets to your car are the tube station. A scene going too long feels just like that. JUST GET ON WITH IT.

Often editors, while editing a scene in movies, will wait for something in a shot to change before cutting away - like someone staring at something, then looking suddenly away. CUT.

That's what you're looking for - that last piece of information before ending a scene.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: Fiction, even when rooted in reality, is like reality with all the boring bits cut out. The audience wants a story, not the filler in between.

Always ask yourself what the audience is learning in any given scene, then cut out everything not highlighting that.