3 Fun Ways to Write Ordinary Scenes
The fictional world can be full of epic battles and outer-world wonders that are a thrill to write, but what about the ordinary moments? Writers can find it difficult to keep a scene where a character brushes their teeth interesting.
Of course, characters will have normal daily life activities even if they do happen to live on a fictional bubble planet in a universe made of soapy foam. Everyone must eat, sleep, and live through the boring moments of life, but that doesn’t mean we have to write boring moments. Ordinary scenes are important, but they don’t have to be boring.
The ordinary in writing has the main purpose of providing context or explanations. Before you can show the epic change in your character’s life, you have to show how the character lives their life initially otherwise the change won’t be very drastic. For example, in the Hunger Games, Katness is first shown living her life in her district in ordinary scenes where she goes hunting with her best friend and sells her game in the market. This is important because it gives us a reason why she is so good with a bow and arrow, and shows how bad the lifestyles in the districts are compared to the pristine lifestyle we see later in the Capital. Even though the beginning scenes were ordinary, they still held the reader’s attention.
A writer should have fun with every scene they write. If the writer is bored, then the reader will be bored too. Here are some fun ways to breathe life into ordinary scenes.
1.Make the Ordinary Extraordinary
Usually in fantasy, scifi, or historical fiction, ordinary things like preparing a meal can be far more interesting than just heating up leftovers in a microwave. Engage your imagination to find ways to make normal tasks raise eyebrows instead of boring you to sleep. What if a magician casually creates a portal to reach inside of his fridge to grab a beer, or if a lone astronaut must override security protocols to force his ship’s technology to convert trash into food for him to eat?
Your character might also prefer to do things differently to the norm. They could have an impulsive need to flick a light switch four times before entering a room, or maybe they prefer to eat while hanging upside down rather than sitting right side up.
As long as they still make sense in your story, twisting ordinary scenes into extraordinary moments can surprise and entertain you and your readers.
2.Give Suspense to the Moment
A normal car drive can turn into an epic scene if suddenly the characters are being chased or are in danger of not arriving somewhere in time. A simple conversation can become ironic and tear-jerking if done as two characters are tied together in the presence of a murderer or in the middle of a flooding city.
Suspense can be created in different ways. The simplest form is a matter of a looming threat that the characters must overcome. Horror genres often make use of ignorance in characters. If the writer lets the reader in on the fact that a detective is having coffee with the murderer he’s trying to catch without even knowing it, that ordinary event is suddenly transformed into a heart-ponding read every time the murderer picks up a knife to cut into their piece of cake.
Suspense can be even subtler. During Katness’s hunting in the beginning of the Hunger Games, it is mentioned that she has gone into a restricted area of the forest to do so. This creates a feeling like she might be caught any moment and urges us to keep reading to see if she is.
3.Inject some Conflict or Comedy into the Mix
Even a conversation about what to have for dinner can turn entertaining if characters are fighting against each other in a game or using wordplay at each other’s expense. Even in their ordinary lives, characters should have conflict. It is very rare that anyone could live in a perfect world.
Ordinary things are full of conflict, and when you think about it, that’s what makes them funny most of the time. What if a married couple were trying to argue while brushing their teeth and spewing toothpaste everywhere? What if walking a dog turns into a sneaky spy-scene as the character tries desperately to avoid his neighbour’s yapping chihuahua?
Conflict can even be friendly banter that spices up the dialogue and makes things far more interesting. Inserting a character with a cheeky attitude, like Tony Stark, makes all interactions fun and entertaining to read.
There’s so many more ways to liven those ordinary scenes. Don’t settle for boring moments and explanations that become flat and uninteresting. Entertain yourself as you’re writing so your readers will be just as absorbed in the story as you are.
Keep Writing!
