Location Split – Improve Your Story Writing
Location split just means that a location within a scene has changed. For example, the scene begins inside a house, and the next piece of the scene is in a taxi; that would be a location split.
The location split is very important when reading a manuscript, we need to think about it, and it takes us right back to what is the scene. So when we mark down what we have within a scene, location change enables us to monitor and evaluate the pacing of our story.
If we change the location within the scene, we don’t need to describe all of it. Is it really important for the reader to know that the character got dressed, picked up their purse, put on their lipstick, locked their front door, went down to the street, waited for a taxi, and got in? That’s what we all do. Those are the boring bits of life. And we don’t want any boring bits in a story ever. They just need to go. What if, instead of having that one scene, the character slams down their phone, we skip the whole part where they walk outside, and then they are sitting in their car, fuming about whatever is happening on the phone? It’s faster without having all those extra words.
We also need to make sure there’s an exit hook, because when we start, the next thing is, is there an entry hook? Is the point of view anchored? Is the setting anchored? And is the timing anchored? That’s why we need to reevaluate when we split a scene.
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