Where do you draw the line when "trimming the fat"?

Dgullen · Jan 12, 2013

P-Jay said:
For example,
Scene 1 is about MC and his family at home.
Scene 2 is about MC and his best friend at school, maybe some back story when he comes into play.
Now do I merge those two scenes? Maybe his friend comes over to his place for dinner, where I introduce them all at once?
Or keep them seperate?

One thing that might help is to consider each scene, or chapter, as a story in itself with a start, middle, and end, a theme, character development, and rises and falls in crescendo.

Chapter/section breaks are partly a matter of opinion, and also don't forget some authors might not do these things very well. I've read some books where chapter breaks seem completely arbitrary - in the middle of action scenes or dialogue.

P-Jay · Jan 12, 2013

I think I've come to a conclusion that, like people have already posted, everything is subjective.

It depends on the genre, author style, voice, story itself, and so on.

Though every scene should establish something necessary to the story, not every scene has to be charging forward. Some scenes may get 10 points across. Some scenes may get 1.

It's up to the author to determine whether the pacing and placement of those "slower" scenes work or not.

Thanks for the responses, everyone. You all had a hand in having me reach this epiphany!

Keep discussing! This is an interesting topic

Where do you draw the line when "trimming the fat"?

Dgullen

Ustom Ser Itle

P-Jay

My name is PJ.