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What Scenes Are the Hardest to Write?
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Gemma
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Jan 03, 2011 12:48PM
I've been writing for years and always have trouble with mellower, between-the-action bits. They're necessary, but it's easy to make them boring by accident. How about anyone else?
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Same here, but without them the story would be overwhelming!!
Yes! That is my problem. I am working on a story that is I think is pretty good but when I try to slow the action it gets to boring
Leah,Stop trying to guide the story--let the story and its characters guide you.
Good storytelling is like a rollercoaster. There are serious ups and furious downs on the way to the stunning climax. Or there should be.
If you look at the slower parts in between the action as the next climb instead of just a boring breather, the writing becomes more challenging because you realize you're only sowing the seeds of the next big run on your way to the crest of the hill.
To my way of thinking, you should never try to slow any story down because you think this is the right way to write, or because someone told you this is what writers do, or whatever--good writers let the story and especially the characters dictate the pace. Then the lulls come naturally, without the feeling of being forced, and you'll want to write them. Think natural flow here.
Good writers, of fiction especially, eventually learn that they are but flies on the walls in the lives of their characters. But what fun it is to be a fly on some walls, even when the action has slowed.
Mari
The hardest part for me is traveling. When the characters have to go from one place to the next and it's a journey of days or weeks, I'm screwed. I agonize over whether or not to just say "Weeks passed" or whether to try to describe it. I usually end up describing a scene, like at a bridge or waterfall where the characters have a deep conversation about carniverous fairies, then say "8 days later".
John wrote: "The hardest part for me is traveling. When the characters have to go from one place to the next and it's a journey of days or weeks, I'm screwed. I agonize over whether or not to just say "Weeks ..."I have problems like that too, and I do pretty much the same stuff. I'm sitting there thinking, do I just fast forward or write something? Most of the time I write a small dialog.
There are really simple literary devices to note the passage of time.As suggested above, it can be just a phrase, not even a whole sentence--Three weeks later, he realized he was in love with her--inserted into the opening of the scene or a brief mention in the dialogue--"You said that a week ago, when we were in Cancun. Now, here we are in El Paso and you're still saying the same thing."
What you've got to focus on is the story itself. If the passage of time and/or distance means little or nothing to the story, then you don't describe it at length--you hint, you mention, you suggest. If, on the other hand, the passage of time is integral to the telling of the story, then maybe you need a few more scenes to highlight that passage of time and/or flesh out that traveling over distance, to make this stand out in the readers' minds.
It's so funny. I used to agonize over these things until I learned a few literary tricks, or devices. Now, I make up my own literary devices.
Just keep writing. And revising. And reading. One of these days, the light comes on and you figure it all out. Then you innovate.
Mari
Travel transitions seem to be a common problem - I was just talking about it in another forum, so can recycle my answer :) If absolutely nothing of import (no major character development, no major plot development) happens on the trip, then a single sentence will do, or a chatty paragraph which you can use to add some character colour:
"Two months on the road with Clem and Hass was no joke. First stop in any town was the brothel, and no bar wench was safe. I never asked where they found the one-legged kobold, only thanked the stars when they lost him - her? - it crossing the Danreavey on a makeshift raft. A few badly tied knots turned out to be the luckiest mischance on that cursed trip, for all we lost all our luggage, most of our money, and ended up table dancing for the night's meal. By the time we reached Fort Sparthing, though, the effects of the bath had worn off, and I swear the stench was the reason we were here on the wrong side of the gate, on the wrong side of twilight, begging to be let in."
My writing is non-fiction, I've never written any fiction, so I'm speaking here as a reader and not a writer, but ... I've seen many books where the writer has the hero lose consciousness and then wake up wherever the next scene is supposed to be. Ranging from someone hits him on the head to he's so stressed out that he faints. I think this is really lame, in the same category with, "And then I woke up. It had all been a dream."Ideally I would think that you could come up with some sort of character development or exposition to happen on the trip. Like, "They passed a sign reading, 'Last Exit for Ruritania'. 'You know', Rupert said, 'The last time I was in Ruritania I lost my watch ...'"
Some writers add a flowery passage to describe the passing of time. "The snow fell hard that winter, and the land was bleak. When spring finally came the fields seemed to leap to life once again ..."
If all else fails, just saying "Three weeks later ..." doesn't seem bad to me.
Mark wrote: "My writing is non-fiction, I've never written any fiction, so I'm speaking here as a reader and not a writer, but ... I've seen many books where the writer has the hero lose consciousness and then ..."Wow, "In Ruritania I lost my watch.." That's awesome.
I've been working on a story where I thought the climax had to happen after alot more time had passed and i had written all the important plot pieces spread out over a period of time, but there were all these holes where nothing happened to the characters for weeks and i agonized over how to fill them. Then I realized: what if the story happened in a more condensed time frame? Would it change what happens? instead of happening three days later why can't that happen the next day? When I did this it really made the story flow better because it was more natural and the story that was meant to be told.
Megan: Sure, as long as it doesn't make the story seem impossibly rushed. I've read plenty of stories where the hero decides he's going to fight the villain, so he begins his Ninja training or whatever, and then three days later he's able to single-handedly take on someone that we've been given to understand is this awesome villain. And I find myself saying, Yeah, right, in three days of training he became the world champion. Or similarly, the hero and heroine meet and ten minutes later they're sleeping together. I find myself thinking, Wow, how cheap are these people?
Gemma wrote: "I've been writing for years and always have trouble with mellower, between-the-action bits. They're necessary, but it's easy to make them boring by accident. How about anyone else?"For me the easiest way to handle between-the-action bits is through dialog. Interesting and/or humorous dialog not only reveals things about the characters, it also can move the story forward quite nicely.
