fbpx

As I was working on book three today, I found myself thinking that the real challenge in writing a story comes down to the question: What to do with the boring parts?

Side note: I mean, its not boring to me, of course, but I get why readers could disagree.

So far, I’ve had a lot of fun writing exciting portions of the book, but inevitably, those scenes depend on their supporting context to make sense. That is when I break out my handy flowchart for dealing with the situation:

  • (1) Will readers find this passage boring?
  • (2) Does this passage need to exist? No really, does it?
  • (3) Yes? Fine! Creativity, you’re up, can you find a way to make this… not boring…
  • (4) Creativity? You’ve got nothing? Okay well, I guess I’ll just make the passage as short as possible… Turn it into a cliffnotes version of itself to cut its screen time.
  • (4) Okay, but even if I go with the ‘cliffnote’ option, where in the story will the readers be the most forgiving about having to endure this passage?
  • (5) Wait… wait… wait….maybe you should put this off  until later? I mean, you never know,  sleep on it and the creativity from step 4 might come through!
  • (6) Hmmm, I think step 5 is just procrastination trying to trick me.
    • (6a) If I’m being honest, isn’t writing this post just procrastination succeeding at tricking me?
  • (7) Can’t let procrastination win! I’ll write the passage and highlight it.  Don’t worry, it will ‘just’ be a place holder… At some point before publishing I’ll think of something better!
  • (8) Do not consider the possibility that step 7 is lying to you… introspection is not a friend to productivity right now.
  • (9) You know what, I am out of coffee, maybe I’ll go get a fresh cup and forget what I was doing by the time I get back…
  • (10) Return with coffee…begin at step 1
Steps to Avoid Writing a Boring Passage
Tagged on:         

One thought on “Steps to Avoid Writing a Boring Passage

  • October 28, 2017 at 8:23 pm
    Permalink

    I think there’s definitely a balance, since a scene can’t be that exciting if you have nothing emotionally invested in the characters. Character development can be “boring” according to some people, but it does some heavy lifting to let us be excited for “our” characters when they finally do badass things.

    Keep up the good work on book 3!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: