Elements To Include on a Novel Scene Index Card
Ollie Ander
Is probably just a couple cats in a trench-coat—the hair shedding and sunlight napping are highly suspect.
Whether you’re just starting writing or have a finished novel and are wondering where it could use improvement, Scene Cards are an excellent way to see your story as a whole and tighten those storylines up into a well-oiled machine!
What is a Scene Card?
"Scene Card" is a term that has evolved over time and with the progression of technology. It used to only refer to a physical index card (or sticky note; whatever stationery people had on hand) which writers would use to summarize a particular scene (or chapter).
Now it's more common for writers to use software to create and organize their scene cards digitally.
What is the point of a Scene Card?
Scene Cards are a great way to catalog what happens in all your scenes and chapters so you can see your novel as a whole. The overhead view allows you to assess your story’s efficiency and progression, be that through plot, character development, or certain ongoing themes.
What should you include on a Scene Card?
Bare-bones, a scene card holds a short description of what happens in the scene, like "Mariah runs away" or "Epic Last Battle".
Here are a few other elements you can include to make planning and writing your novel more fluid:
Scene number - Labeling scenes with numbers can help you remember their original layout in case you decide to play around with the order.
Summary - Write out what happens in the scene.
Setting - Where does the scene take place?
Characters - Which characters are involved in this scene?
POV - Whose point-of-view is this scene in?
Goal - What are the main character(s) trying to achieve in this scene?
Conflict - Key obstacles/challenges the characters face.
Plot Points - You can label your cards with certain beats you're trying to hit for a particular outlining method, or you can label which plot line that scene is attached to.
Emotional Tone - The emotional atmosphere of the scene can be helpful to track, like if it's tense, romantic, sad, suspenseful, agitating, etc.
Foreshadowing - If you include foreshadowing in your story, it could be helpful to know when and where that happens, in case you'd like to make changes later.
Outcome/Resolution - How does the scene end? What's different now?
Notes - Being able to attach notes to your scene cards is a helpful feature of whatever system you will use, for editing reminders, research, or references.
Which elements you include on your scene cards ultimately comes down to what would be helpful for you when taking in a bird's-eye-view of your book.
If you're using physical index cards, it might look something like this:
Some authors love the index card method, but if you prefer a format that's a bit easier to edit (or that doesn't rely on your penmanship 🙋), there are many digital options as well.
For example, this is NovelPad's scene card:
It holds:
- Scene description
- Chapter number
- Location
- Date
- Word count
- Character POV
- Customizable color tags (track whatever you want!)
And you can see all of your scene cards on the chapter board, where you can click and drag to reorder them.
Happy writing!
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