Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

A Vignette vs A scene in a chapter.

A stand alone vignette as opposed to a scene in a novel.

Earlier this week I was faced with writing two different types of scenes using the same characters and situation. One in the “Weekly Quickie” was called “The First Encounter,” or something like that and the other was Chapter 11 from Don Tomas de Torquemada series.

I had been hoping to kill two birds with one stone using the same story twice….It worked out and it didn’t.
On the quickie I wound up running out of words as I tried to set the scene, include the class requirements and write a love scene….My quickie entry forced the love scene too quickly upon the characters and I get the sense it fizzled.

In the chapter however, the scene worked out much better but offered only an attempt at a kiss that failed to materialize. It was in keeping with the way I like to light the fuse of passion and let it smolder and sputter along for a few chapters…I can write a torrid love scene….(torrid for me anyway….see Chapter 1: The Ruse) but it has to be part of a larger context….as sex is in our daily lives.

Trying to satisfy both requirements with a single piece of prose is not going to work, however the story line can be adapted to both. In the quickie it will have to be a scene that was a long time developing in the novel and only a part of a chapter. The material can be used in both but has to be worked around and adapted to the requirements of each form.

However, let me say again, because it's important…that writing a contest vignette with a harsh word constraint forces the writer to ruthlessly pare down to the absolute bare bones of the story line, eliminating, adjectives adverbs and redundant verbiage….When this is done the thread of ideas leap from the page (CRT screen) and as the author adds back in the grease the thread of passion begins to glow and the work becomes animated and springs to life….Don’t disparage the contest vignette as something to be distained.... because it is the same anology as a wet stone and a blade. The two are very different but both are important to a story line that has a sharp edge.