Describing details of surroundings. My problem is that for my characters, all is completely normal and not worthy describing in detail. Mostly. And I am sitting in their heads. Ergo... *sigh* I don't even notice that something is missing!
Exactly! And that's why I fight so hard with the part of me that starts saying - half way through a scene - "Why are you telling us this? Okay, so you're travelling from A to B, but why do we need a scene for it? What has this particular journey got to do with anything?" What I do recognise is that the example you posted is quite ridiculous. I can at least take comfort in the knowledge I'd never go that far with my padding. This is interesting, but I'm not entirely sure I understand. Was the advice suggesting scenes written in real time are a good or bad thing? For example, my two characters have just arrived at a music festival and I spend approx 500 words describing this arrival in real time - the sights and sounds of a festival being prepped. Is this good or bad? Is it filler? I just don't know.
It depends on what you want that festival interlude to do. Are you wanting to get the reader into festival mood, so they will better experience whatever important event you plan to take place at the festival? In that case, it's an important part of the setting. Mood setting is not filler. In fact, it's one of those things that 'quick' writers sometimes fail to do. If the story reads too quickly, it's hard to make an emotional connection to what's happening. However, if you take 500 words to describe a festival where nothing happens—just because you like festivals—that would likely be filler. It might be interesting to readers who like festivals, or people who would like to know what a festival is like—and some writers do this kind of things successfully—but it could be cut out if necessary.
Well the 500 words don't only describe the setting, they also include real-time events which set up their reason for being there.
You see, that might be obvious to some, but just the simple act of being told that setting isn't filler will help me enormously and ease my doubts. Thanks.
This isn't my place and I hope I don't offend you Jud, but I think this is your real struggle too. Is it fair to say you're doubting everything as you write it, and you feel you can't move on to the next bit until you've got a solid answer? If so... I get that. I still can't write a draft through without going back and editing early chapters, but I think it's absolutely essential to get past the doubting to a certain degree if you ever want to finish anything. I know that the chapters I'm writing right now are 100% going to be rewritten when this draft is finished, because I always have to rewrite this part (where the MCs meet and get to know each other). It makes my teeth itch that I'm writing Chapter 5 when I know Chapters 3 and 4 aren't right. But I'm forcing myself, because otherwise 3/4 will NEVER be right. I really, really hope I can get to the stage where I write a draft through without changing a single word once I've moved onto the next paragraph. Will I? Maybe, maybe not. But I absolutely believe it's the best way to work.
I'm going to chime in to say that I wouldn't call it filler, I'd call it "flesh", as in the flesh that clothes the bones of a skeleton.While one could imagine a skeleton being functional (let's ignore physics and biology here) it wouldn't be much fun. You want the color and warmth and beauty of flesh. You can have too much flesh--your story might be so fattened up that everyone agrees that they'd like a clearer view of the skeleton. You can have too little, so that the skeleton is barely covered in skin. But a very thin person can be beautiful, and a pretty hefty person can be beautiful. So once you're inside the extremes that decide that it's clearly too much or too little, it's your decision, as a writer, just how much flesh you want on your skeleton.
Bah -plot. Damn thing. Made worse cause I seem to like fiction that's not really big on plot so sometimes I wonder why it's needed. Usually I have to write to discover my plot which is ... time consuming. Also - wrapping up a scene. Argh! I can create these huge scenes with a lot of back and forth dialogue but I hate it. I'd much prefer to condense it into - I don't know what you'd call it exposition? Show detail. Emotion. Less Talk. Dare I say telling? Right now I'm working on a scene in which Finlay my 14 year old mc has bribed his soon-to-be-director into a trip to McDonalds to talk about the plot of the TV show and I'm not crazy about it. I love the backdrop. But the conversation is boring the heck out of me. I'm thinking of turning the whole thing into exposition but I wonder if conversation isn't, especially at this point when their relationship is just getting started, expected. Another thing I struggle with but I'm getting better about is not going too far down a dead end. Just recently I started a scene in which the director takes Finlay to a mansion he's staying at to talk - I hated the scene. The metaphor was sound - glacial room, glacial director but because it wasn't his room it didn't quite work. Before writing on, I axed that scene. And the scene leading up to it - 8 pages were history and I rewrote it that the director shows Finlay his repossessed mansion making a point to drive past it and instead takes him to his divey apartment. Which I felt works much better. Now as soon as I feel the dead end coming instead of moaning about it, I just clip it at the trouble point and start again.
I've been in an engineering faculty for the past five years. I'm not the outgoing type. As a result, I have trouble with: FEMALE CHARACTERS I used to talk to girls all the time, where the hell'd they all go, and when did I stop being able to relate to them? Also plot. Build-up of suspension is just... Artificial... I'm way too stubborn and I can never give in to the traditional structure. As a result, events just kind of hobble along until the final goal is reached or the (from first person POV) MC dies in an anticlimax. Because sometimes you just slip in your bathroom and break your skull
You're bang on the money. That's why I start so many damn threads. When I read author quotes like 'Accept your first draft will be shit...' (I'm paraphrasing and don't know the owner of this quote) I try to take comfort from it, but then 'that' voice in my head says, "Ah, but hold on. What does he mean by shit? Does he mean that the writing will be poor, or that 50% of it will be pointless filler?" Because there's a difference. One means rewriting so the writing is better, the other means losing half of your novel. But you're right. I need to shut up and get on with it. I either write it and THEN worry about things, or I procrastinate and spend my free time in here starting daft threads, and end up with nothing. Thanks, I needed that. Well, thanks to @jannert, I now see it for what it is - scene setting.
I'm pretty certain one or two of my short stories have the potential to be novels, or at least novellas. I've never been able to expand them though. What, to me, succinctly tells a story, just falls apart when I add anything. To me it seems less is more. I really need to work on this aspect of the craft. As others mention, I have never, ever, read a piece of my work without finding something I thinks need changing. I don't believe 'finished' is in our lexicon.
Ha ha! Well that made me laugh, expecially the last line. You sound like the type who could do a great self-deprecating piece that would end up being funny and popular. Building a story around women you can't relate to, because you're not the outgoing type sounds like something you could start with. Either from the semi-autobiographical perspective. Or BE that woman trying to deal with you. That's fun to play around with as well. Swap roles.
Speaking as one who 'lost' nearly half my novel, the experience can be exhilarating. Like having a damn good clear-out. I've always maintained that people who keep a sparsely-furnished tidy house never understand that feeling of euphoria that I experience when I finally get the pigging house CLEAN from top to bottom, and several years' worth of formerly cherished crap is sitting out at the kerb waiting for the council to come and collect it. WEEE HA.
I've been writing scenes from the POV of a woman recently. I just... Can't judge anymore whether or not it's believable. Fortunately I've picked up a colleague from the other gender who enjoys reading my style so she's helping me with it. I should totally swap roles. I'm going to do that right now in fact. Well, tomorrow, my weekend plans cancelled on me. Thanks bud!
Finishing is a problem. I've said to myself that I'm not going to start a new story before I have an idea of the conflict and the end result. Apart from that I also have a problem with plot. I feel like I have a plot when I start writing, but then it kind of draws out and becomes a random soup of sorts. I could list other things, as well, such as description and flow. Always something to work on.
