Writing a Scene vs Chapter

I mean, is there even a difference? A scene is where you want to get a point across and a chapter is where you want to get a point across.

Well, not exactly.

A Chapter

Is made up of multiple moments in time where your character is trying to reach their goal. In a chapter you want to have three things; a character, a setting, and a conflict. A chapter is made up of multiple scenes. A chapter is classified as having at least one character, one or more settings, and an overarching goal the character is wanting to achieve. The overarching goal is smaller than the goal for the book but bigger than the goal of a scene. If the goal of the character throughout the book is to find out who murdered their parents, perhaps the murderers have caught your character and tied them up in a cave. Their goal for the chapter could be to escape the clutches of the captors. The conflict of the chapter is the MC (main character) wants to leave where-ever they are being held and the captors want the MC to stay. This conflict, and the MC's goal, will be the same throughout the chapter. The question of each chapter is: "Will the MC achieve their goal?"

A Scene

Is a moment in time in your story. In a scene you want to have three things; a character, a setting, and a conflict. Mulitple scenes make up a chapter. A scene contains only one setting. If you change the setting, you change the scene. You can also change the scene by changing characters in the setting. Maybe your MC is being held by captors and then a saviour walks into the scene. That's two scenes. Each scene must contain a conflict and some scenes may contain a goal. Say your writing a chapter where your MC is being held captive. You could have one scene where they are being brought into captivity. One scene where they are looking for a way out. One scene where they are being introduced to their guard. Another scene where they punch the guard.. And so on. Each scene must contain a conflict. It could be an internal conflict or an external conflict. But a conflict there shall be. Not every scene needs it's own goal but every scene needs an obstacle (or conflict) that is stopping your MC from acieving the goal of the chapter. If you choose to give your character a goal to achieve in a scene, which I highly recommend, this goal will be smaller than the goal of the chapter. For example if we use the same setting we've been playing around with in this post, perhaps a goal of the MC in a scene could be to distract a guard while the guards goal is to not be distracted. Dun dun dun, you've created conflict. Another goal of a scene could be for your MC to stay warm if they are there over night. Little goals and conflicts make up scenes to help the MC survive and achieve their bigger goal.

A book is made of of chapters. A chapter is made up of scenes. Scenes are made up of words.