Creative

What do you mean by "trail off?"

Without knowing more of the specifics I can recommend some general tips. It sounds like, from “knit everything together”, you have a bag of scenes that you started because you liked them but didn’t necessarily have how they fit together in mind. That’s ok but it’s a little bit the “we’ll fix it in post” approach - but that’s what editing is for! Just takes longer.

Ok, if that’s the premise I would say my favorite way to tie scenes together is by them ‘rhyming’, Fifth Element does this beautifully. Every transition somehow rhymes with the how the scene before it ended. It’s not a copy however, a character lighting a cigarette at the end of a scene isn’t matched by another lit cigarette but it could be a plume of exhaust from a car, or characters around a fire, or perhaps someone coughing from a punch in the stomach. All you’re doing is rhyming with how the scene before ended. Bonus points if it emphasizes the scene somehow, totally fine if it’s just a transition into something engaging.

And I just reread your comment for what sounds like: editing tips so scenes don’t go on too long. Make them shorter. An apparently misquote attributed to Mark Twain goes “if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” Terrible ‘tip’ I know, but by finding what it is you’re trying to accomplish with a scene and then trimming all the excess it is like refining a jewel so it shines more brightly.

Here is very helpful scene structure video

Its an excellent video about how to approach and improve your scenes, no matter what youre doing. (Check out her whole channel actually, very solid and straightforward writing advice all around.) :)