Understanding Story Beats And How They Relate to Scenes
Good news: if the scenes work, so do the beats.
Photo by Sophie Elvis on Unsplash
Yesterday afternoon during a co-working call with Ninja Writers, we started talking about ‘story beats.’ And I had to admit that I didn’t really understand them.
That’s embarassing. I mean, isn’t that one of those things that someone teaching fiction writing should know inside and out?
I associate story beats with the super fast paced publishing that some indie writers who put out a book a month (or more!) do. So, I guess I’ve just never taken the time to learn, since I don’t fall into either camp.
After doing some research today, though, I realize that I do, in fact, use story beats in my writing. I just don’t use the term. And that made me feel a lot better.