Okay so I'm on Chapter 5 in my book, and I am coming up empty. I know roughly what needs to be in it, but I dread writing it. Here's a brief summary of my chapters: Chapter 1: MC Intro/Side Story Arc Sequence -MC gets in fight with brute, escapes and passes out in a auto-piloted ship. Chapter 2: Antagonist Intro -Bad Guy yells at brute for failing to kill MC, gets an unexpected call from secret BIGGER bad guy. Chapter 3: Resolution Side Arc -MC wakes up at unknown destination. Is now held prisoner by a robot. Chapter 4: Sidekick Introduction -MC meets owner of robot. Turns out to be estranged daughter of Bad Guy. Chapter 5: -MC and Sidekick have long boring dialogue about their lives. Having trouble getting started on this chapter because I feel it's going to be dialogue heavy with her explaining why she is estranged with her father and the MC why he is wanted by her father, etc... Any tips? Should I just grit my teeth and plow through it?
Skip it, man. If you're not feelin' it, then it's going to suck. You're better off taking all the important information you want to put across in that section and mixing it in with the story's more interesting parts. That's the saying, if you don't want to write it, then no one's going to want to read it.
Lose the chapter completely. You don't need it. It's basically an infodump. There's a reason you're shying away from it, and the same reason will make your readers' teeth itch.
I think it would probably be too soon for long introductions with characters that have just met. Do you do that with people you've just met in real life? What you are describing is something you experience on a 1st date and those can be brutal. It is only natural to want to avoid it. I would have them go off and do something, perhaps something that could reveal they have something in common. Like a goal. Or have a an experience where they begin to build trust.
Sounds like chapter 5 is a chapter you'll cut out in revision, anyway. Just don't bother writing it in the first place. Your readers won't hold it against you.
Unless they're having the conversation in a hot tub I wouldn't bother. Keep the action moving, the readers will figure out whats going on when you drop them hints along the way.
While it's good to hint at some background, if this background is actually the whole chapter, that's gonna become boring. Wouldn't it be cooler if your MC discovers something about the girl that makes your readers wonder why she has something like this, or what it means etc, or makes them afraid - and have your MC dig around and then the girl delivers some cryptic response, and then you can finally unravel the mystery at a later stage with a short dialogue?
Thanks Mckk, I actually decided that their introductions get cut short when the bad guys find both of them and they have to run for their lives. Now they are both on the lamb. Hooray!
Let them find out all of those things about each other gradually and naturally throughout the story. It usually takes some time knowing someone to know that much about their life anyway. Besides the boredom factor it could seem unnatural to just have your characters sitting there and throwing everything out at each other right after they've met.
