The scene — the unit of a novel

In AuthorWorkplace a novel is written in scenes. A scene is the smallest piece of the story that has a place of its own, a time of its own and its own cast.

What we call a scene

A scene is one unbroken stretch of action: a definite set of characters, one place, one span of time with no gaps.

The characters move somewhere else, a night passes, the action switches to other people — the next scene has begun.

Why a scene and not a chapter

The assistant writes a whole scene in one go instead of putting it together out of pieces. That is why the text comes out whole: one tone, one line of action, no seams and no repetitions.

A chapter is too big and too mixed for that: it usually holds several places and several spans of time. There are no separate chapters in a novel here — the book is read and exported as scenes one after another.

How long a scene should be

We suggest keeping a scene within 14,000–18,000 characters — that range is set by default. A scene much shorter than that has no room to unfold; a much longer one grows weaker towards the end.

You can change the range in the “Novel settings” section: it goes to the assistant with every scene it writes.

What rests on the scene

Everything else leans on the scene. The plan of a novel is a list of scenes. Once a scene is accepted, the novel remembers what happened in it. Illustrations, analytics and promotion count in scenes as well.

So a precise scene — with a clear place, a clear time and a clear cast — makes the whole novel more precise.