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