The monthly challenge for the My Manuscript Stinks Society (MMS Society) was to write four scenes of a novel.

Make sure that each scene creates a different emotion or group of emotions. … Also, make sure that each scene features at least one strong image (try using all five of the senses).

I won’t post any of my novel on the web. I won’t even tell you what it’s about. Why?

1. It really stinks. I cannot write fiction. My attempts are so horrible, I am embarrassed.
2. I’m positive I’ll rewrite these scenes a number of times.
3. I’m not sure the current plot will work or be interesting or both and I don’t want my ideas to be shot down just quite yet.

However, I did this assignment, mostly. I reworked an old scene (despair) and then I wrote three new ones (joy, fear, and anger leading to sadness). They were all short. On this website, I’ve been working on “short” scenes, in which I create emotions, setting or characters in a very small amount of space. When I went to my novel this month, I found myself focusing on very small snippets of the scenes. I am having a hard time creating a larger scene and continuing the dialogue.

As I said above, I consider my fiction writing talents to be horrible. Having an “assignment” to revisit my attempt at a novel was very good for me.

1. As I started writing the scene with a vague idea of characters, I found my characters taking on slightly different attitudes then I anticipated. Now I know what people mean when they say they write but the characters create themselves. (Interestingly, a year ago I had anticipated writing from a daughter’s point of view and started a few scenes. A few months ago, I became a mother. Now I found myself changing and writing from the mother’s point of view. It feels much more natural. This is what I mean about rewriting the entire thing a few times.)
2. I found that it is hard to describe an emotion: I find myself remembering how I have felt at various points in my life. I can’t describe an emotion using five senses unless I’ve experienced it.
3. It is challenging to write dialogue that is convincing, but dialogue is what moves each scene.

I have a lot to learn about how to create a fictional scene. What suggestions do you have? I’d appreciate your advice!