How to Make EVERY Page of Your Story Interesting

Golden Goose

Image by DonkeyHotey/Flickr CC

Today I have another post from that kick@$$ writing teacher I’ve taken hostage *slides food through the slit in wall*.  Actually, Alex Limberg is a friend of mine and total rockstar and seriously, check out his free ebook about “44 Key Questions” to test your story; it will help you make your scenes tight and compelling and detect any story problem you might have. Today, Alex is showing us a very interesting recipe to keep every single part of your story interesting. Frees me up to continue working out my plan for global domination.

Take it away, Alex!

****

Uh-oh! It’s showdown time.

In your heart-stopping thriller piece, Tinky the milkman has just found out who poisoned Lady Chatterbee’s canary. Now he is driving to the ash grove for the faceoff in the old mill.

Your scene before and your scene after are sweat-inducing, ear-wringing, eye-popping pieces that keep your audience glued to the page.

But this little scene in between, when Tinky is quietly sitting in his car, motor humming and wheels turning… well, there is just absolutely nothing happening.

It’s a little dull.

Sleep-inducing?

Face it. It would make a dog with rabies put on his pyjamas.

Let’s say you still want it in there. You need a connection piece, you want to slow down the pace a little to ramp it up more effectively later on. Maybe you even want to weave in a bit of backstory, so we better understand where Tinky is coming from.

But how can you do it in a way that doesn’t completely choke off any excitement in your reader?

How do you make a scene that is naturally not very exciting interesting in its own way?

This post will give you a practical roadmap for how to make the in-between sexy. Also, because I know long-winding and unmotivated story parts are often hard to detect for the writer himself, you can here download a free goodie to check your story for superfluous parts and any other imaginable weakness (it uses test questions).

This is how to keep your story fresh and exciting in every scene:

1. If You Can? Trash It

Your first choice should always be to get rid of any in-betweens that don’t advance your plot. To show your protagonist getting out of bed, showering and preparing her breakfast cereals would slow your story down ridiculously, destroy its rhythm and bore the boots off your readers.

There is a storytelling rule that says: “Get into the scene at the latest possible moment and out at the earliest possible moment.” You can observe this rule in meticulous action in screenplays and movies.

Filmmakers in particular can’t afford to bore their audience for even one second. With the ultra-short attention span of today’s YouTube culture, viewers will just cold-bloodedly move on.

Look! Emojis!

However, sometimes you will have your very own reasons to show an additional scene: You may want to show your character in a different light, display her personality or habits or slow down the rhythm on purpose. Maybe you want to give your reader a feeling for passage of time or show social surroundings, working space or landscape. There are a million possible motives.

So should you decide to hang on to your scene, here are a couple of helpful techniques to keep your audience hooked.

Garbage Can

2. Introduce Personality: Make It about Character

Instead of worrying how to fill those pages, see them as an awesome opportunity to breathe more life into your characters!

Look at it this way: In most scenes, your plot carries the burden to advance your story.

But now, in your little in-between scene, your character has a chance to fully take the stage and showcase a brand new side of herself. If the story is about her professional life, make that scene about her private life; if the story is about her bright side, make that scene about her dark side – or the other way around.

You might also use the scene to introduce new relationships we don’t know about yet. New relationships can give a deeper glimpse into your character’s personality and show her in a different light.

Each of us human beings is a complete drama on his own. We are also utterly entertaining in our own ways… Use your pages so your reader gets to know your characters better and your entire work will profit!

3. Introduce Action: Make It about Drama

Better yet, when you get several of us together, the drama is exponentiated. So you could involve several characters in your scene and use it for a mini-plot, a play within the play.

Your mini-plot doesn’t have to be connected to the main plot, nor does it have to be about some big and important theme. Depending on your genre, it could be everyday drama and as mundane as a girl forgetting her handbag on the bus.

The overarching plot plays from beginning to end of the entire novel. In turn, your mini-plot could play from beginning to end of the scene, with a similar structure; for example:

  1. Introduction
  2. Problem arises
  3. First attempt at solution
  4. New twist and problem even worsens; Climax
  5. Problem gets solved; Happy ending

If you want the complete ballad of the forgotten handbag, how about this: Girl cheerfully rides on a bus, thinking of happy days (introduction); while she is waiting for her connecting bus, she realizes she has forgotten her handbag (problem arises); she enters the first bus again, only to discover the bag isn’t there anymore (attempt at solution, problem worsens in climax); she asks the driver in desperation and learns that somebody has found the bag and taken it to a lost property office (problem solved); happily she goes to pick it up (happy end).

Of course, you can also let a character play through the whole sequence solely in his mind. For example, let him worry about horrible outcomes of the main plot. At that point, he won’t even have to interact with anybody to create drama; he doesn’t even have to move or to do anything. Just let a worst-case scenario play out in his head.

If you are bored, just make things more difficult for your characters: A nightly walk through the park is a lot more suspenseful if you are not sure if somebody is following you. If nothing else helps, you can always fall back on conflict to spice up your tale.

Make sure your mini-plot fits the kind of story you are telling and doesn’t overwhelm your main plot. A comedy with the mini-plot of a mad axe murderer can be done, but you have to make sure to hit the right note…

4. Introduce Questions: Make It about Suspense

Suspense is always about questions: Who is the murderer? Will Godzilla eat the city? What secret does Martin hide from Sharon?

Your readers will never get bored as long as there are nagging questions on their minds.

Question Garden

Image by Dennis Brekke/Flickr CC

In your in-between scene, you have two choices to raise a question.

Option one: You could spin a question of the overall plot further. For example, letting your character contemplate if Craig can even be the murderer, because he was on vacation the entire time; letting your readers know that Godzilla has just eaten another city block; hinting at that breathtaking secret of Martin’s.

Option two: Your mini-plot could create suspense by raising a question on its own. In the example above, it would be the question: Will the girl ever get her handbag back?

In the end, dealing with in-between sections is about giving your scenes a life of their own. This, of course, is something you should always do in any scene, so it’s excellent practice.

You are a storyteller, and if you want to be a really good one, know that not only the raisin parts of your story are worth telling. Any part of your story should be worth writing well and making it at least a little bit interesting.

And if you do take the effort to polish every part of your story, it will feel continuous and complete and shine on like a crazy diamond. Your story will engage your reader continuously, draw her in deeply and take her on a rollercoaster ride she will never be able to forget.

Photo, Alex Limberg

Alex Limberg is blogging on ‘Ride the Pen’ to help you boost your fiction writing. His blog dissects famous authors (works, not bodies). Check how tight your scenes are and much more with his free ebook “44 Key Questions” to test your story. Shakespeare is jealous. Alex has worked as a copywriter and lived in Vienna, Los Angeles, Madrid and Hamburg.

***

Thanks, Alex!

Kristen here again.

Now let’s hear it from you: What do you usually do with a connection scene? What happens in your story if nothing happens? Do you sometimes let dull story parts slide? Do you proceed to tell people the cookiemonster ate your exciting version? Wouldn’t it be a lot easier if all of our scenes could be as dull as watching water condense?

Remember that comments for guests get double love from me for my contest!

I love hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of FEBRUARY, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly. I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

44 comments

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  1. I did a story within a story in my second novel-Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues. The main character, Elizabeth went up a hill where she found Phillip and then she had to go back and get him some clothes and bring them back. Boring stuff, so rather than leaving it boring, I showed a continual poker game where an army private was beating the pants off an officer. Each time she passed by, we learned how badly the private was beating the officer.

      • Alex on February 25, 2016 at 11:33 am
      • Reply

      Nice one, and quite an elaborate solution!

  2. Great advice!! I write for kids and it is so important that every page be exciting or they will close the book and play a video game!

  3. ABSOLUTELY love Ride the Pen’s landing/confirmation pages! Which I’ve commented on, before, but seriously, they just deserve some extra love – 🙂 Thanks!

      • Alex on February 25, 2016 at 11:34 am
      • Reply

      Awesome! 😉

  4. Reblogged this on Erotic Vampire.

  5. Kill your darlings.
    And if you can’t do that, this article gives great alternatives. If only I felt fresh when I began writing each scene (or rewriting or editing), this would be so much easier advice to take to heart. But as time wears on in the revision process, I just want to get through it already.

      • life101student on February 24, 2016 at 5:10 pm
      • Reply

      Me too. And after so much time going through the words already written, I become convinced that every scene actually *is* boring. Even the ones that had me laughing out loud as I wrote them. Even the ones that had me 100 percent invested as I wrote them.

      After 3 months, the whole damned story is boring, and I want to write the next one instead, even though I still have quite a way to go on the work in progress.

      sigh. This is when I become convinced I am a truly terrible writer. And I read writing advice, which then convinces me I’ll never be any good, either. Gah. I have a couple of beta readers who say they’d keep reading (shared the opening section with them, just to see how the seed works), but it’s easy to say to myself that they’re saying that because they love me. LOL

      Yeah, today’s not my day. It’s rainy, and chilly, and I just want a cup of hot chocolate. 😉

      1. Been there. Some days I still go there. And then I get up the next day and get back to work.
        Curl up with something warm and a book you love. Tomorrow will be better 🙂

        1. Watched our recorded episode of Vikings while sipping on a glass of wine, so mental wheel-spinning has slowed down considerably. 🙂 Tomorrow is another day.

          By the way, finally figured out that I have an actual profile page on WordPress (was a little confused when you mentioned the “likes” in another note, so investigated further). So now y’all can see me by my name instead of my log-in! Yay!

          Still confused about how the like thing works, and about private messaging through WordPress? Is that possible or have I just received a random note from somewhere? LOL Man, I’m really showing my lack of tech-savvy here.

          Baby steps.

            • Cathy F. on February 25, 2016 at 12:46 pm

            Wish I could edit this now, but have since figured out that when I am visiting directly from WordPress, the like feature shows up, but when I’m on the blog from the Warriorwriters location, the like feature isn’t visible. I’m really not quite as dim as I seem. LOL

            I opened a WordPress account years ago, just to comment on another blog, and had no idea that account had a potential life of its own.

  6. My problem scenes tend to be solved by the first solution: pair of scissors. I blether on about how the characters move from A to B. No more! Unless of course it’s interesting, as in the princess sneaking out over the castle rooftops when she’s grounded.
    My main revision questions tend to be a) do we need this bit? and b) how could things get worse?

  7. I love the advice to make the slow scene about building character. I realize now that I’ve been halfway doing that without being conscious enough of it. Focusing in more clearly with that goal should help. Also, now I want to try more deliberately to take those slow scenes that build character while doing double duty as “necessary stuff happens here,” and *also* see if I can add more drama and action to them. Picturing each chapter as a mini-story with beginning, conflict, and resolution is a really interesting idea.

  8. Free download! Yay and THANK YOU! I’ve been working on two stories at once recently, one a paranormal and one a straight contemporary. It’s not the greatest idea, it’s actually pretty tough, but I find that when I’m writing two stories in different genres the boring parts stick out like a sore thumb. And what do I do about that? Well, I cry first, but then I ruthlessly murder those scenes. I’m ok with it (for the most part) I know it’s important to raze some scenes in order to make our stories POP!
    What a wonderful post! Thanks to both of you for your wisdom.
    Tamara

  9. When I feel the story needs to slow down, so that my reader can reflect on what has happened so far, I like to get my main character running through the case in his head: asking questions, theorising answers. I also do a bit of character development. But mostly, I tend to gravitate to the blossoming romance between my two detectives. Nothing like a bit of sexual tension to make a quiet scene exciting 😉 Ps. Would sooooo love for you to critique my writing !!!

      • Alex on February 25, 2016 at 11:40 am
      • Reply

      I like how everyone of you has their own favorite way of tackling this problem; corresponding to your personalities and the way you approach writing, I suppose.

      Critique your writing: If you mean me, I will introduce a critique service on my blog fairly soon. Thanks for comment.

  10. Thanks for the awesome post, Kristen and Alex! (Kristen, do you at least let Alex out of his cell for some natural Vitamin D during the day? Does the leg shackle clank really loudly when he walks in the sunlight?)

      • Alex on February 25, 2016 at 11:41 am
      • Reply

      Kristen and her blog ARE my sunlight.

      1. Stockholm Syndrome much? :> Thanks, Alex!

  11. When I feel it is the right time for my story to slow, so to allow my readers to reflect, I like my main protagonist to ask questions about the case he is solving and theorise his answers. I also use it as an opportunity for some character development. But mostly, I tend to focus on the blossoming romance between my two detectives. There’s nothing like a bit of sexual tension to spice things up a bit 😉 PS. I would LOVE for you to critique my work !!

  12. Reblogged this on ugiridharaprasad.

    • Alex on February 25, 2016 at 11:32 am
    • Reply

    *eagerly snaps at food donation*

    It might come through a slit in the wall, but it’s actually gourmet food! A pleasure to be featured on your fine blog once again.

  13. In scenes that might read slow, I like to go deeper into my character, really digging for what makes them tick. Another dead body always works too!

  14. Reblogged this on Mysticalwriter and commented:
    How to make your story interesting

  15. Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.

  16. Interesting post for me, since I write Suspense with a spice of Dark Romance. My technique to keep things interesting (meaning keeping myself from going into unneeded detail ) is START THE BOOK WITH THE INTENTION OF MAKING IT A SHORT STORY. It will get longer along the way, since you feel compelled to get into detail here and there, but only at the main and important bits.

    • R.C.Toms on February 27, 2016 at 9:14 am
    • Reply

    Sage advice. Make every sentence and word count. Double duty is better still.

  17. This is really helpful…thank you!

  18. Another goodie! Thanks. I’m sharing this baby.

  19. And, I will see you in Salt Lake in March. Can’t wait to absorb more of your wisdom, Kristen.

    1. FABULOUS! I am looking forward to it!

  20. Reblogged this on Writer's Treasure Chest and commented:
    Another fantastically written article about how to make every page of your story interesting. There’s so much to learn! Thank you, Kristen!

  21. I think that with regards to pace, there has to be variation. So yes, I do like to let it slow down a bit. I never thought of this as connector scenes, but I suppose that’s what they are. Anyway, I definitely use the time to explore the character further.

  22. Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.

  23. I keep trying to download the 44 key questions and it never gets to any of my email addresses. I’ve tried various browsers and all three of my email addresses. I’ve checked spam and trash folders. Nothing.

      • Alex on December 6, 2016 at 11:58 am
      • Reply

      Sorry about that, Dawn. I have no idea why that is.

      Shoot me an email to alex@ridethepen.com, and I will send it to you manually.

  24. I have always found this site from ride the pen very informative and helpful and also yours-
    Kristen today for my first time Thank you and keep the helpul words coming…
    Thank you From: The Teller of Tales.NICOLAS.

      • Alex on December 7, 2016 at 11:38 am
      • Reply

      Thank you, Nicolas!

  25. Thank you, but I’m more confused than before.

      • Alex on December 7, 2016 at 11:41 am
      • Reply

      Hey Susanne, keep your head up, and remember that the most important part is to JUST DO IT! Write!

      If you go through the process, all the contradictions will resolve and you will get a feeling, an intuition, of how to make a great story happen.

  26. Thank you so much. You always read: “every scene must further the plot” and “every scene must have conflict” (true, in a way, I supposed) and you’re sitting there thinking: “but I sort of need this scene for the other to make sense, otherwise it’s too abrupt, but it’s strictly speaking not ABSOLUTELY necessary, but…” And you ALSO hear that you should vary your pace etc. It’s nice to finally have someone ADDRESS these “filler scenes” and give useful advice. Thank you thank you thank you!
    Next stop: weaving parallel and sub-plots into the main narrative?

      • Alex on December 7, 2016 at 11:42 am
      • Reply

      Awesome! Yes, it’s all very complicated… or maybe not. Follow your heart and keep on writing! 😉

    • Mark de Wet on December 7, 2016 at 10:32 am
    • Reply

    If something is irrelevant to your story – can it!

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