Elaborate, or just get to the point?

Hey guys, I'm wondering something.

I have two stories I'm working on. They both have a problem of they have something right at the beginning I think warrants elaboration, but that I'm worried might drag the story down.

In the first case, I'm working on a JRPG-inspired plot about a princess and some of her friends who become exiles. The thing that sticks in my craw about this is that we're dealing with mostly sheltered people, so I felt like I had to devote a chapter to them learning how to survive in the wild. But I read this to a friend of mine, and he said "Dude, that part is mostly just boring. I don't see why you can't just skip to them getting to the next town and getting a quest or something."

More recently, I've been working on a fantasy story with a kind of slasher movie premise. The setup for this story introduces the hero (a prince) coming to the story's setting to work out the details of an arranged marriage. Two things—not only do I want him getting to know his girl, but I want to avoid the "token victim" problem that plagues practically all slasher plots. This means, though, that there's a few chapters of just people hanging out and getting to know each other before any bodies are found. Again, I'm worried that the early set-up will bore readers.

So, advice time: Should I cut out the "Boring parts" or should I keep them?

Thanks in advance.

Try to throw in Chekov's Guns to the bits you mentioned. That way, they serve a more plot-directed purpose, but still do what they need to.

Make both of them funny. People who have never been in the forest would fal and fail like nobdy's business. And people getting to know each other would certainly make jokes.

If there are boring parts, you are not doing a very good job. At things into it to make it interesting. Character development, stuff like that.

I'm pretty sure those parts are there because of Character Development.

Then if they are still boring, someone has a case of bad writing on their hands.

Not necessarily true. You've watched The Wire? It can be quite a drag because it bothers with developing characters in a really drawn out way (as in proper Character Development). And every single season's premiere can be pretty boring. And the whole point of these episodes is to establish the new characters while explaining the old ones.

Why does it work, then? What makes them entertaining enough to make you keep watching? Well, there's the cruel sense of humor it has.

Also, remember there are two kinds of readers: the ones who are in it for the characters, and the ones who are in it for the plot. For the second kind, a character developing episode/chapter will always be a drag.

Never watched the Wire. I do know of a series that simply could not do plot and character development at the same time though.

There is a way to do both.

edited 26th Jan '11 8:31:33 AM by MrAHR

One: Watch it. It's pretty much Scorsese on Cocaine...Ok, more cocaine.

two: There is indeed a way to do both. We call it exceptionally good writing. And as a matter of fact you should always push for both.

What I meant by that is that you should always get second opinions. Never let the opinion of one poster or reader define what you're going to do. Let the opinion of five (minimum) and lots of meditation define your story

Or alternatively, define what you're going to do yourself.

That's the lots of meditation bit actually.

But, hey, always remember that all of this is advice, I could be wrong, yadda yadda yadda.

Well, one thing is having interesting characters. Most scenes of mostly Character Development that I've seen fail did so because they didn't make the characters interesting. They were developing generic, flat characters with no real twist, such as completely ordinary newlyweds moving into a new house, or something.

Another idea is to drop subtle hints to the later plot. This is especially fun in a horror story, to build suspense. Always make sure your hint doesn't seem thrown in as a hint - it seems to be illustrating character or whatever. For example, in a story where some monster is killing people mysteriously, two characters could be watching the news about the killings and the Heroic Sociopath makes some insensitive but funny comment, while someone else responds with Dude, Not Funny!.

Seconding that just characters standing around chatting can be interesting if written right.

If that's not your strong suit, however: for the first story, why not skip to them getting to their destination, but describe them as obviously worse for wear and summarize the adjustments to wilderness life they made along the way; as for the second story, what a lot of horror/thriller stories do is, even if the menace isn't killing people yet, it can still be lurking around making the audience think it's about to attack someone, so the suspense still gets built up.

Kay, as soon as I'm a bit farther in I'm going to post the slasher story so as to give you a greater ideal of the problems I'm having.

You need to start with a bang of some form to catch attention and get people interested. Some do it with a flashforward or make the first arc a "how we got here" deal after showing some action.

Or you could do a come for A stay for B deal where you use some other type of appeal to hook the audience early, and then ease them into the real meat. You might even draw someone into something they'd never go for otherwise.

edited 15th Sep '11 5:09:33 PM by Kendai

I tend to lean towards 'Brevity of the soul of wit', even though the character who said that would never shut the hell up. In any case, I don't believe in wasting a reader's time. If something's been properly established through showing rather than telling. Don't dwell on it.

If you think your scene is boring, ask yourself just how important it is to the plot. If it's unimportant, cut it. If it does have a justified function, then you should try to do something else with the scene, too. For example, you can make your first example an opportunity for both Character Development and a chance to showcase your characters' unique personalities and quirks to the reader, either to be humorous (what I'd recommend) or as a dramatic point. Like someone else also said, that would also be a good time to plant a few Chekhov's Guns, or just do some other minor Foreshadowing (In fact, there's no reason you can't do all of this at once).

For your second story, instead of just having the characters get to know one another, you can have important plot-specific action (though not necessarily the main action) start to take place. You can even work in a few subplots at that time, as well, if you so wish.

edited 15th Sep '11 6:55:36 PM by tropetown