What Goes In; What’s Left Out? The Novelist’s Puzzle
It's In Your Head
The novel plot is in your head. You know how it’s going to develop. (Sort of.) You know your characters. You may even know how the story will turn out. But the nitty-gritty part of writing a novel is learning what to put into the story and what to leave out. Are there some guidelines for making those decisions?
In this blog post we’ll take a closer look.
You Can’t Tell it All
The first thing to point out is the most basic: you can’t hope to tell the whole of what happens to your character. It follows then that a crucial aspect of constructing the plot is the selection of incidents to narrate.
Even if you were willing to start way back when the character was born (or before), and go right through to his death, you would still have to leave out ninety-nine percent of the events of the character’s life. And (UGH) how boring a read it would be.
I think we’ve all read stories that try to cover too much ground. The author got carried away with chronicling so many events that he failed to breathe life into any of the scenes. Even biographies (and autobiographies) must be selective—and novels are even more so.
Interesting? Or Relevant?
Episodes of action in the novel are in constant competition with each other for space and time in the story. The beginning author often experiences a conflict between an episode that is interesting, and an episode that is relevant.
It may be that in a novel there might be space for a sequence that is interesting in and of itself, but with little relevance to the movement of the character, and you choose to weave it in. However, those should be few and far between. Too many tend to weaken the plot.
Falling in Love with a Scene
The root cause for doing such is because the author has fallen in love with a particular sequence. Believe me, I've watched many of my beloved scenes meet their demise at the hands of a discerning editor. Of course, the story was much improved by such editorial cleansing—but it was painful nonetheless.
We can’t allow our personal endearment toward a scene cloud our eye regarding what’s best for the story. Otherwise a certain scene or sequence can carry us away and could then betray the integrity of the entire plot line.
The Author—The Final Judge
Only you as the author can be the final judge of what's important to do at length in your story; only you can tell what’s of real relevance, or real interest. The story will make certain demands on you, but after all, you are the one who’s writing the story.
There are, in fiction, a million ways to do everything, but the important thing is that they be done. What’s important in the story (to the story) must be emphasized and played out. What is unimportant must be briefly summarized, or skipped entirely, so as to permit full dramatic rendering of what is of consequence.
Unimportant Opening Scene
When I wrote the first draft of my teen novel, Flower in the Hills, I set the opening scenes with Latina in her final days of the school year at her high school back home. At the time, I felt it was necessary for the reader to see her in her school setting as she interacted with friends and made plans for the upcoming summer vacation.
While that was interesting to me, it was not relevant to the story. This happened very early in my writing career. I soon learned (with the assistance of good editors) that I was merely writing backstory and getting to know Latina. More about backstory HERE
The final rendition of the novel opens with the scene of Latina growing extremely carsick as she rides in the back seat of the family car while her father navigates the hairpin curves of the Missouri Ozarks. Now that was relevant.
Be Aware
For the beginning writer, it’s best not to be too concerned by the difference between interesting scenes and relevant scenes. It’s enough to be aware. On the first draft simply cast restraints to the wind and write. Work to get the story out of you and onto the paper (computer).
Be Courageous
Once the first draft is completed, now the time comes to buck up and be strong and courageous enough to 1) discern the unimportant scenes, and 2) mercilessly edit them out.
If you're planning to be your own editor, this process is even more crucial to the novel’s success.
What Works for You?
If you’ve come upon a process to be the judge of your own work (deciding which scenes are relevant, and which are simply interesting), please reply. I'd love to hear from you.
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Hi @norma-jean, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. You can read what I wrote about your post here.
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Excellent article. I've found for me that I constantly have to remember NOT to "tell" at all, but to show. I'm rarely that successful, but it is something for which I strive.
Thanks for the feedback @mepatroit. "SDT!" Show, don't tell. Something I learned very early on in my writing career. So crucial. But it's all a learning process. As I said, being aware is half the battle. If you "don't know that you don't know," the battle is uphill all the way. You, however ARE aware. Just keep on writing...!
Oops spelled your user name wrong. Try again here: @mepatriot.
Thanks, I will!
Hi @norma-jean. I saw your post via @steemitramble's recent curation post. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and giving us guidelines on writing a story. The only thing that I ever got close to writing a fictional story was when I did a 5 minute freewrite daily prompt challenge by @mariannewest. And I read that again, and even though it was only short, I included some details that were not relevant or it could have been left out. I really want to learn how to write fiction but the thought of setting a scene, or describing a time and place setting or how the characters will evolve throughout the story, dreads me. I don't have enough skills and self-belief to write, even in my own native language.
Thank you for your informative post and I will read all your previous posts because I just love to learn more and improve my writing. @ntowl has also helped me a lot through her writing class notes and live discussion. This post of yours actually has the same elements as to what I have learnt from @ntowl recently when it comes to writing, be it a personal blog, story or an article.
Hi @evlachsblog. Thanks for your reply. It's awesome that you have a heart to learn. That's the key to any endeavor. I've shared a wide range of writing techniques since I came on board with Steemit a month ago. It's so fun to give a hand up to others!
Your comment here (I don't have enough skills and self-belief to write, even in my own native language) is exactly why I keep encouraging people to "keep on writing." The only way to gain any type of skill is to practice, practice, practice!! :^) Don't give up.