Nothing Like a Smooth Transition

In Stephen King’s no-nonsense guide, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, he includes a chapter titled, “What Writing Is.” Good question. Probably many good answers. King’s answer? It’s “Telepathy, of course.” He elucidates: when we write, we’re simply sending, by way of words, our thoughts into readers’ minds. That’s our aim—to transfer in an interesting, provocative, entertaining, informative, well-structured, and compelling way what is alive in our minds without confusing our readers.

Clear telepathy

We want no static to interfere with our message. How do we accomplish such a telepathic effect? By employing strong writing skills. One of the most crucial skills to develop is writing effective transitions, which takes thoughtful practice. Our responsibility as writers is to create sensible ways of moving readers through our writing until they reach the end—and ask for more.

Trains of transitions

Writers say, “Here, read, and follow my train of thought.” A coherent story is a train of thought with efficient transitions. If your story is cogent, it runs unimpeded along its tracks, carrying readers in their comfortable padded seats from one place to the next. You transfer them to various places: one character to another, one time-period to another, one idea or emotion to another. Transitions can happen within one sentence, from one sentence to the next, from one paragraph to the next, from one chapter to the next. If you write transitions in a rough or unclear fashion, it’s as if your train has hit a tree lying across the tracks, or even worse, your story-train has jumped the tracks and lost your readers. What to do?

Transitions Q &A

The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book, edited by Kirk Polking (Writer’s Digest Books, 1993), offers this advice:

Q. The transitions in my stories never seem to work. How can I handle them without being abrupt or taking too much time?

A. Scene transitions involve changes in time, place, and emotion. As Louise Boggess says in How to Write Short Stories that Sell, the key to smooth transition is to “link the old with the new.” Boggess suggests that in the last paragraph of a scene, preferably the last sentence, the writer should indicate the present place and time period, and if possible, imply the new ones. Then the first sentence in the new scene can establish the time lapse and change of place. Note these points in the following example:

Natalee halfway hoped the Crandalls wouldn’t like her antiques, but that must wait until tomorrow, she reminded herself, and tried to get some sleep.

 

The next morning worry about the Crandalls completely left her mind when …

Clear and present transitions

In learning any craft, the wise apprentice studies the masters. In writing, the masters are authors who’ve proven their skills and have carried many readers along their story-tracks in compelling reading bliss. One such master is the author and teacher, Theodore A. Rees Cheney, who included a chapter about transitions in his book, Getting the Words Right: 39 ways to improve your writing. (Second Edition. 2005. Writer’s Digest Books. {over 80,000 copies sold!})

“A writer’s goal is to move from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph without jarring the reader—unless it is his intention to do so. The writer should be considerate enough to lead the reader across a bridge—not force the poor soul to leap across a chasm in the dark. Some writers fool themselves, assuming that such leaps are easy for any reader of intelligence. It is relatively easy to leap to the next thought without a bridge, provided you know how much of a running start to take, how high to leap, and where you’re going to land. The writer knows all this in advance; the reader does not.” (pg. 87)

Read aloud to improve transitions

A powerful way to identify weak or missing transitions (to remove any trees lying across the tracks) is to read your writing aloud. Stand in front of a mirror or alone in a room and read your sentences, one after another, out loud—no mumbling—so someone in the other room could hear them. When you listen to sentences spoken aloud, you more easily catch missing words, cumbersome phrases, and illogical or jarring transitions.

Mark each place where you stumbled while reading aloud. Next, study the context to figure out how to clarify the reading ride. As you concentrate on making each transition better, smoother, and more effective, remember your goal is to keep readers on track, following your train of thought, receiving your message. When they read THE END, they’ll be glad they heeded your call to, “Hop aboard this story-train. It will deliver.”