How Anchoring Works

Sometimes scenes get a floaty feeling. I'm a big culprit when it comes to writing floaty scenes in the first drafts because I'm concentrating so much on the dialogue and the character attitudes I sort of forget about where they are. What is needed are some anchors to stop the scene floating off into space.

Anchors are usually little physical reminders about the character's location in the real world. If they're in a pub, you'd have drinks, beer mats, rickety tables, sounds of glasses clinking, perhaps a log fire crackling, and so on. The trick is to thread the anchors through the scene. This scene beginning is from Another Woman's Husband.

'So you're now the child of a broken home.' Crystal stuffed a pile of exercise books into her pigeonhole in the staffroom. 'Join the club.'

'Do you think Bill would let me off lunch duty because of it?' Becca said. They were now five weeks into the term, with half term coming up. She wondered why she always seemed to have twice as much to take home as Crystal.

'Fat chance. You'd have to be suddenly orphaned at the bare minimum. One parent buggering off wouldn't get a look in,' Crystal said, collecting her coat from the hatstand. She flicked her hair out over her collar. 'I put it down to too much reading of Saga magazine. It gives unreal expectations of life past retirement, all trips to Cuba, and Petra by moonlight. I wish.'

'Speaking about expectations, what are you up to tonight? A date with David?' Becca gathered a stack of exercise books together, thinking about unrealistic expectations.

'You're so behind - didn't I tell you? He was all right at first but....

And so on. The bits in bold anchor where and when the scene is taking place ie the staffroom, end of the school day, five weeks into term with half term coming up. It's important to let readers know quickly where and when a scene is taking place, and to keep the reminders going through. If you don't, they just float away. Read it without the anchors and you'll see what I mean.

'So you're now the child of a broken home,' Crystal said. 'Join the club.'

'Do you think Bill would let me off lunch duty because of it?' Becca said. She wondered why she always seemed to have twice as much to do as Crystal.

'Fat chance. You'd have to be suddenly orphaned at the bare minimum. One parent buggering off wouldn't get a look in,' Crystal said, flicking her hair out. 'I put it down to too much reading of Saga magazine. It gives unreal expectations of life past retirement, all trips to Cuba, and Petra by moonlight. I wish.'

'Speaking about expectations, what are you up to tonight? A date with David?' Becca said, thinking about unrealistic expectations.

'You're so behind - didn't I tell you? He was all right at first but....

You can get away without anchoring for a page, max, but ideally you should be threading them all the way through. I know it's a problem I have, so I take particular care when I'm editing to make sure I've got enough anchors. Besides, you can then have fun with your settings. Be bold! Don't have people drinking cups of tea in kitchens, put the scenes in interesting locations instead and let the characters interact with them. Later on in Another Woman's Husband, Becca and Crystal have scenes in the thermal baths and the Georgian Pump Room in Bath which started as tea drinking in kitchen scenes. More fun to write, more fun for readers to read.