Is that a sign you should chop it out? I'm at a part where the most logical course of events involves a two-part police interview after an incident where two of my MCs kill a couple of thugs in self-defense. The thing is, this interview isn't going to go anywhere. The MCs aren't even going to go to court for this. It's a serious moment so I feel like I shouldn't try and throw humor in there; the only reason I feel I need the interviews is: for the first one -- to show that the investigation is taking place and that the police aren't going to be speciesist (speciest? specieist?) in their work; for the second one -- to give some closure to the whole event and let the readers know what happened to the thugs my MCs didn't kill. I don't know. Should I just buckle down and write some scenes I think are boring, or just write that the scenes happened in a couple of paragraphs of "tell don't show" and instead focus a bit more on the mental trauma of my central MC about the incident? Either way, I feel like those bits won't reflect my best work, because on one hand I can't get into the scenes and on the other I'm brushing them under a rug.
If you're bored with it, that's certainly an indicator. If you can think of away to achieve the goals you have for doing the scene, but that you don't find boring, I'd say probably do that.
I think you should generally cut any scene that isn't absolutely essential, so if you have a way of telling the story without having these scenes, I'd go for it. Alternatively, if you decide the scenes are necessary, can you introduce elements of characterization or something to make them more interesting?
I’d just throw this away with a paragraph or three. Joe spent the next twelve hours talking to the police. The only good part of the experience was the coffee. Since when did the police have good coffee? Oh, and they let slip that Thug and Bully were in holding. That evening, he worked until the coffee wore off, then slept like a dead thing until the police came at 8am for “a few more questions.” The questions petered out around sunset, and when he got home even the coffee didn’t keep him awake. Not great, but you get the idea.
I feel ya. I am writing up the amped and hyped 'going to go and kick ass scene', but it feels like a drag because all they are doing is traveling there and BSing. But since they don't have a portal gun or teleportation, I have to make them travel, and since it is near the end of the story they kinda gotta take a breather before going knee deep into death, pain, and gore. So yeah you will have slow scenes to give the reader a bit of a break for all the badassery going on, so you can launch them face first into a pile of dead bodies, bullets whizzing all over the place, and the random explosion momentarily deafening them. As long as it is pertinent to the story plot and keeps things moving, slow bits work. And to add as long as they are not drawn out too long from whatever else is going on you should be fine. Best way to squeeze in exposition is while the characters are doing some menial task, coming back every once and a while to mention that they are still doing said task while expositting info to the reader. Unless you can't help but have them sit around a table and hash out key plot points, that is. Good Luck.
Thanks! I'm still adding in a slow scene in addition to the police part. I want to have a long conversation between my main MC and her mentor about the incident. She's understandably freaking out (on the inside) about it, and I want these two to have more scenes together to show that they really do have a strong relationship, despite the mentor's very business-like demeanor and earlier half-denial of how much she cares about the MC. I just really didn't like the police interviews.
Not always. Some scene are a little slower but I don't think it should ever be boring. So first I would ask myself is this scene really needed? Does it add to my character arc or plot in some way? If yes then can I make it more interesting? Or can I cut this scene and stick the same information in somewhere else. If no, I would leave a note for myself about the scene (what and who was going to be in it and what it was about) because later on I may feel like adding it in - if I feel it's needed.
