Lifting the mood after an emotional scene - Writers Forum

missmia86 · 01-18-2008, 11:58 PM

Hello everyone,

I need your expertise!

I have just finished the first chapter of my (attempted) first novel, and it ends on a raw and emotional note (well, I'd like to think it does).

I want to begin the second chapter on a lighter note but I don't know how I can do it without it being obvious.

I know it is hard to give advice on this when you haven't read the piece...

My question is:

Should I use dialogue to lighten the mood?

Should I avoid too much "pondering" on behalf of the protag?

Should I spring straight back into action?

Do I even need to lighten the mood?

Thank you so much! I've realised that putting in the mental barriers of "new chapters" can be a bit of a burden and from now on I think I might just keep writing to maintain the flow and then worry about chapters later on!

xoxo

mwd · 01-19-2008, 12:36 AM

I don't think any transition is necessary. IMO, readers expect changes in mood/tone/etc. between chapters. Just make sure your second chapter is as interesting and engaging as your first.

missmia86 · 01-19-2008, 12:42 AM

So you think I should keep the mood and go against the reader's expectations of a change?

Just wanting to clarify

xoxo

lin · 01-19-2008, 01:09 AM

Actually, chapter endings and beginnings are very important, like acts of a play of TV show. They end on downbeats or upbeats, the resume with a signal statement. You are right to be conscious of this and want to do it well.

The readers don't "expect" anything. And if they did, you can make as much off kicking that expectation in the butt as by catering to it.

One important thing is for the first chapter to end, not just whimper off. You want the guy hanging on the cliff desperately, not yelling instructions on how somebody can get him a ladder. You want the chick swooning out in ecstasy or the guy losing consiousness or the character dying pitifully. Whatever.

The first line of the next chapter could be a thousand miles and ten years away. Or it could be right there on the spot, but shifting the tone.
"Well after Greg kicked the bucket in such gripping fashion, there didn't seem to be much point in...."
"She woke up alone, without even a trace of his odor."

You could do worse than study TV shows for how they end an act. "Law and Order" is killer at that. Each show, even when you are aware of it and waiting for it, ends totall unexpectedly on a minor line.

Another thing you can do to round of endings is to throw in a last minute change of pitch, like a trumpeter doing a little modulation at the end of a bridge.

These are the last few lines of a section in a book I just finished

Quote:

They were always the kind of people to share with others so it will be Don Camponeta. With Violeta relishing her new status as a sort of first lady of the boondocks and Pepito emerging as leader in his age group not only because of family fortunes, but for the courage, will and bedrock self-worth and resolve forged by his journey and sacrifice. The whole future of the family would seem assured at last and their esteem a beacon to the community. So of course when the rebel guerillas come, they’ll come for them first.

Notice that by giving them a little gutpunch right at the end, you are free to do anything you want to open the next chapter. They will wait for you to finish that up. Or they'll take it as part of a brusque style and read on.

If your next scene is a little girl putting on a frilly tutu, fine.

What you do here is part of your style, we can't tell you what to do, there are no rules for it.

One suggestion I would make is avoid the pondering. In general. You don't want your cowboy hanging from the cliff suddenly realizing that it's a powerful analogy for the human condition. Your next paragraph might be a frenzied rescue...or it might be a pretty saloon girl staring out the window, wondering what is keeping him on this night of all nights.

It's good to ask questions like this. It's also good to come up with the answers yourself.

mwd · 01-19-2008, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lin

Your next paragraph might be a frenzied rescue...or it might be a pretty saloon girl staring out the window, wondering what is keeping him on this night of all nights.

So in other words, no transition is necessary, like I said. You can change the tone if you want, instantly, at a chapter break. That's why it's a break. If you wanted to keep going along the same path you were going on, you wouldn't have gone to a new chapter.

I'm not sure, maybe we agree. You seemed to go from disagreeing with me to stating some things I agree with for sure. Probably I wasn't clear enough:

missmia, when I said no transition, I didn't mean that you should stay with the same mood you had, but that you could switch to any mood you wanted, without needing to transition at all. A transition implies gradual movement. It doesn't need to be gradual. You can start wherever you want, as long as it's engaging. It's like if you're talking with your friends, and you have a good story you want to tell them ... even if it's not directly related to what you were already talking about, you bring it up anyway, because it's interesting, and you know they'll want to hear it.

You can go back to the previous topic you were talking about at any time. It's still there, dangling, waiting for you to decide to pick it back up. And when you do, you still don't need a transition for that (unless you want to have one, to purposefully make it smooth ... but it isn't a requirement). Each of your scenes/chapters has a particular mood that you've chosen. You don't need to ramp up to them to make the changes in mood "work". You can go high, low, high, low, low, high, high, low, etc., as you wish.

And lin is right. The best answers to these kinds of questions are discovered on your own.

P.S. Of course readers expect changes between chapters, if not in mood or tone, then in time/place/POV/something. Otherwise it would all be one scene. You break chapters when you want to change direction.

Truth-Teller · 01-19-2008, 03:02 AM

Humour is the best (and most effective) method of dampening the mood, and lighting the scene.

missmia86 · 01-19-2008, 03:07 AM

Thank you both for your advice.

However, I think I may not have made myself clear.

My question was: HOW do you suggest I begin my second chapter, considering I have now decided to begin it on a lighter note?

What techniques can you use?

I was thinking of using: dialogue or action, as opposed to further "pondering" of the previous scene.

Lin, thank you for your advice- that the following scene could be entirely disjointed and unrelated to the previous, however, I am using a first-person voice, a character who in the previous scene was emotionally distressed, and because of this I feel like I sort of "need to address" what went on in the scene before.

But maybe as you both said, I could lift the mood by bringing it forward in time still and then refer to the previous scene further along in the second chapter.

I hate new chapters! It does my head in. I'm avoiding new chapters from now on!

Truth-Teller · 01-19-2008, 03:14 AM

I'd go with dialogue or exposition.

It's best not to follow Lin's advice. Do what you think best suits your story.

lin · 01-19-2008, 12:38 PM

Quote:

So in other words, no transition is necessary, like I said.

Those are very, absolutely different words from what I said, all right. And very different from what you said.

Mike C · 01-23-2008, 03:36 AM

I'd go with the banana skin.