Storyboarding: How to Break Your Novel into Scenes

Storyboarding is typically a practice known to the film and television industries. Script writers break their episodes or movies into scenes in order to fit certain time lines. Novel writers can use storyboarding, however, for a number of purposes, and can become better writers because of it.

The first benefit of storyboarding is that, by breaking your novel into scenes, the entire project will seem less overwhelming. Many aspiring authors are intimidated by the very concept of penning an 80,000-word novel, but if viewed from the approach of several 5,000-word scenes, the entire project seems more manageable.

Storyboarding also allows you to find plot holes and inconsistencies far more easily than if you look at an outline or the manuscript by itself. Mistakes in pacing, setting, plot and characterization will become glaringly obvious when viewed in separate scenes.

So how do you get started with storyboarding? And how do you know which scenes should be separated and which should remain together?

Write an Outline

The most effective way to break your novel into scenes is to start with a carefully prepared outline. The outline will allow you to see the progression of events in your story without worrying about the wording of your novel itself. The outline doesn't have to be a formal presentation; it can simply be a synopsis of each chapter as you see it now.

Separate Each Chapter into Scenes

The second step in storyboarding is to separate each chapter into individual scenes. Be careful because there can be more than one scene in each chapter, so you won't want to storyboard the chapters alone. Look for changes in point of view and setting to indicate the change of a scene.

Write Each Scene on Note Cards

Next, take a package of note cards and write a synopsis of each seen on the cards. Write clearly so that you don't have to squint and keep track of the order in which they occur. Important factors to write on the note cards are point of view, the characters involved, the basic action and the setting. This is the process of storyboarding.

Order the Scenes

Once you have finished writing each scene down, put them in order. I prefer to clip them to a bulletin board in my office, but you can spread them out on a surface or tape them to poster board. Just make sure that you can move the note cards into a different order if need be.

Examine the Progression

The final step in storyboarding is examining the progression of each scene. Does it make sense? Does sufficient time pass? Are the characters presented in their best light? You might want to rearrange scenes, which is fine, because that will help you to get a better handle on pace and structure.

Why is Storyboarding Helpful?

Once you've gotten the hang of storyboarding, you'll see that it serves a quite useful purpose. When viewed in segments of action and drama, you'll be able to pinpoint problems that you might not have otherwise noticed.