Are Your Scenes Pulling Their Weight?

Are Your Scenes Pulling Their Weight?

Image by Ben Landers from Pixabay

I submitted a chapter to my critique group recently, and one of my partners said she found little to complain about, but she didn’t think the scene had enough conflict, that it didn’t really move the mystery along.

That got me thinking about scenes and their functions, and how reasonable her question was. There’s nothing wrong with having a “quiet” scene once in a while. It gives readers a chance to breathe. In this case, Go...