However, only this morning I found myself plunging into one of those very breather chapters, and after a page I wrote, in all caps: "WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS CONVERSATION. IT SHOULD MOVE THE PLOT FORWARD OR BE TAKEN OUT. DUH SELF."
And it helped me realize that if the chapter, conversation, event, etc doesn't move the plot or the character themselves forward in some way, then why on earth mention it? It's like retelling an event that has happened to you to a friend and mentioning the weather when the story you are telling took place inside and was totally unaffected by the outside.
I can tell pretty quickly when chapters start to go nowhere that they either need to be taken out, or given a purpose that actually ties in with the plot or shows something about the character that is important. It doesn't have to be life changing for them, but it should have an impact (such as factoring in to characters relationships with one another, giving new information, a new obstacle for the character to overcome, etc), otherwise you are forcing reader's to read irrelevant nonsense that does nothing but hold your story back.
Just something to think about, and definitely something I've been focusing on recently in rewriting book 2 of SoF. Has anyone else found something similar in their own writing? Do you notice when you do it, or does it have to be brought to your attention? Can you spot it when you are reading a published book?
*is guilty* I've done pointless conversations and scenes before. With CatC I am being really cautious of doing that because it's my first long book I'm written on my own. Then again I have scenes scattered about and I need to bridge them together (here we come NaNo '11!!)
ReplyDeleteAlso I've noticed it slightly in books since some scenes seem to just... be there (Most of the time I'm just reading a book and not analyzing it since I usually only read a book once and want to enjoy it the first time around). Like the conversation is just conversation and only serves to develop characters but not plot or is just there.
Sometimes I've noticed it right when I'm writing it, such as when I'm writing on CW but mostly it's when I reread stuff. Already I'm noticing stuff with CatC though I mainly try to drive the plot forward with foreshadows or moving the scene along. Then again, once I am done I can better criticize myself as well as my beta readers. Honestly, I like some 'pointless' dialogue that helps develop characters but it needs to fit the moment or the plot. Reread the Claidi Journals I now knew what foreshadows I knew to look for as well as situations that helped a character to evolve.
But my eagle eye for writing is not perfect, haha. Oh well, I can only ever improve! I just have to remember that scenes have to have a purpose such as driving the plot along or developing characters (such as most of the conversations I have with C and C are to foreshadow or develop their relationship. But again I haven't written a lot of that. Right now I just need to finish draft 1 and then nit pick or else I'm going to uproot everything including the opening which starts off with Cullen's father though that foreshadows a bit :P)
((On that note, I really doubt I'll be able to finish it in time again so you're free to use my free print code thingy))
Ugh, this was an excellent topic to bring up. I remember when writing Minions I would get lost in that trap ALL THE TIME (though, it was NaNo, so I was probably encouraging it for word-count as well, haha). But I would walk into a scene with a purpose in mind, like, "And here's how I will get things to advance", and one page in characters were simply talking NONSENSE with each other and I was getting nothing out of it, neither personally nor story-arc-wise. It's easy to get discombobulated with all that and let yourself believe that it really is ALL up to the characters to lead you. I'm really glad you pointed out that that's not worthwhile at the sacrifice of CONTENT. Marvelous thoughts on this, m'dear. A good reminder.
ReplyDelete