Reduntant scenes

[johnbaxter]

I working on a novel about an adolescent girl that marries young and has five kids in less than seven years (it happens, it's based on my mother). The problem is that I can write about the first birth, even the second one, but how do I write about all five without being redundant. Have you had similiar problems to solve in your writing?

[superpsycho]

You don't have to go into details just what was unique about each birth. Even if it's nothing else then the child's stats. If there something special about the nurses, or the length of labor. If it's just one or two sentences about who, when, and the stats that's ok. The rest can be all about the nature of the child.

[Cogito]

If the scene is redundant. slice it out and cremate it. If the scene recurs as an echo of a prior one, it need not be redundant. If the repetition itself serves a purpose, then keep it. Maybe you are emphasizing a pattern of behavior.

On the other hand, a solitary, unique scene can be redundant if it serves no purpose that isn't met by other scenes.

[minstrel]

A scene is redundant if it adds nothing new to the story. Maybe the girl's attitude towards motherhood changes with each birth, as the workload and responsibility she bears increases before she's emotionally able to handle it. If that's the case, then the scenes are not redundant; rather, they can be extremely powerful.

[Floatbox]

So there was not any emotional difference between the third, the fourth and the fifth? That's very interesting to me. I wonder why?

Have you ever heard of rhyming scenes? It is when two scenes are intentionally similar to emphasize a difference between them, and that difference emphasizes a change in character. For instance, character Sam gets hit with a flying hamster and runs away as fast as he can to his safe place where no one can hurt him emotionally. Later on, Sam again gets hit with a hamster, but this time he does not run. No, he stands erect and juts his chest at the bully. And then the reader says, "Oh my, I see how the character has changed so clearly! He is strong. So, so strong - and brave too! And now I see how it must because of things that happened to him between the two scenes!"

[RowenaFW]

Try Magnus Mills for repeated events which work in a longer plotline and have a collective point to the running of the storyline. 'The Scheme for Full Employment', 'All Quiet on the Orient Express', 'Three to See the King' and 'The Maintenance of Headway' would all illustrate his method!