How to decide what boring parts (training sequences, sports practices, etc.) to offscreen

[L.Zihe]

A lot of MG books are about joining a sport, training for an event, going on a journey - side note, but "the journey" as a trope has always been strange to me because there is so much mind-numbingly boring walking/driving involved in travel - or otherwise participating in a long-term activity. At the same time, MG and kidlit in general are really strict on avoiding detailed, repetitive, or boring sequences. The amount of time spent on an activity is often important to the stakes (something matters a lot more when you've worked really hard for it), or the learning itself pushes some kind of character growth (think showing critical characterization through how they make plays in basketball or something). So how do writers decide how much to show?

My specific project has a speech and debate club as a really core part of the plot, and most of the characters attend it and go to several tournaments through the year. I'm struggling with how I can balance actually writing out speeches with not making it horrifically dull or technical. I'm also struggling to convey how tiring and boring debate is to my protagonist without making the reader sit through long boring sequences - just having her think about being bored feels like telling the audience, but actually boring the audience is not the goal. Finally, I haven't quite figured out how to pace a story where debate tournaments are happening every month or so. Thoughts? Solutions?

It's registering as I write this all out that this is kind of a big and vague problem, so more concretely, how do you guys decide what scenes to describe, and how do you deal with dialogue that is too long/technical to include in full?

(And minimally related, but does anyone know of MG that specifically features competitive speech or debate for me to see how it was done before? I've done some reading, but the books I read were either about delivering a single speech at a single occasion, or they were YA where the audience is likely much more receptive to the technical jargon.)

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Woollybear]

... mean girls mathletes treatment?

 

[Akvranel]

Hey L.Zihe! Nice to see another MG author! I'm currently writing a basketball book so I have a similar issue of trying to pace events throughout a season. I also did Speech & Debate from 8th-12th grade.

Can I get a better idea what your vision is for the story, first?

Is this your protagonist's first time with Speech & Debate related activities, or do they have experience with it already? And, somewhat related, what's your idea for their arc (for instance do they start out bad and hating it but end up bad and loving it).

Secondly, how much focus does the S&D bits have - is that what the story about, or is it a side plot?

Lastly, how does your protagonist feel about the activity? Your comment about debate being long and boring makes me think that the protag is being forced into this. Trust me, us debate nerds do not find it boring at all!

I'm not sure if you've participated in S&D yourself, but I am more than happy to answer any questions you have about it!

(edited for grammar issues)

 

[Akvranel]

I haven't read any books that cover a Speech & Debate theme, specifically.

However, as far as a reference for pacing goes, I would recommend Any Day With You by Mae Respicio. (published 2020)
It follows a Filipino-American girl who is trying to create a short film for a summer competition. The story has to go into the nitty gritty of writing the film, production, makeup design (that's the MC's passion), and the filming editing. The book has an educational slant to it, so I imagine it would appeal to the same type of reader wanting a Speech and Debate book.

Beyond that, many sports books would give insight on how to pace an activity with practices and regular events.

Sidetracked by Diana Harmon Asher is a cross country book which did a good job of mixing the player going to practices to improve and going to the sporting event. (Disclaimer - the book about ADD, but is was published in 2017, when not as much was known about ADD).

 

[Alorac]

The Benefits of Being an Octopus has a girl forced into a debate club. You might try it. Good book anyway.​

 

[CMBright]

I don't really read much (OK, any) MG so I can't help with recs. But I would expect that the general rule of thumb would be to skip the boring parts unless there is a compelling reason. If there is a compelling reason (maybe a drill foreshadows how the team wins the game), I would expect to have just enough of the boring part to show the reason, then switch to a more engaging scene. Especially with younger readers who might have less patience for a delayed payoff.

 

[Silenia]

I'm struggling with how I can balance actually writing out speeches with not making it horrifically dull or technical. I'm also struggling to convey how tiring and boring debate is to my protagonist without making the reader sit through long boring sequences - just having her think about being bored feels like telling the audience, but actually boring the audience is not the goal.

It sounds like you have two problems that might actually resolve one another. On the one hand, you need to show those debate club meetings and competitions without being repetitive and/or boring your audience, and on the other hand you need to demonstrate your protag's boredom at these repeated, boring debate club meetings and competitions, again without boring the audience.

You're right that having her think about being bored would probably feel like telling (and not particularly interesting to the audience). But there's other ways to go about conveying a character's--and especially a kid's--boredom with a situation. Which one would work for you would depend a lot on your protag's personality, but just some random ideas from top of my head:
* she might spend most of her time looking out of the window, watching [some sports club or another] training and daydreaming about being a big scorer/legendary goalie/super quick track runner instead of being stuck with boring speeches;
* she might be passing secret messages back and forth with the equally-bored kid sitting next to her;
* she might spend the time she's supposed to work on a speech drawing a super cool comic!!! instead and then fumbling her speech when it's her turn because she didn't actually write one;
* she might be thinking up, planning, or outright playing pranks;
* she might be watching this one kid in the club instead of listening because [she wishes they were her friend/they're funny/wonder where they got that awesome pair of sneakers and whether she's got enough money saved up to buy herself a pair/they called her second-best friend forever names at recess two weeks ago and now she's trying to think up a way to get back at them]

Done against a backdrop of the debate club meetings, it'd helpfully convey both the existence of these club meetings and her boredom with them (since she's focusing on everything except the meetings themselves), without focusing too much on the exact contents and nature of those meetings or on her thinking "bored bored so bored" over and over. (As a bonus, some of these might also be able to be tied in with further plot-relevant points beyond the ways in which the debate club itself is central to the plot)

 

[pebbleg]

You can try different ways to convey how boring something is without going into the superfluous details and sequences. Focus on the reaction of the protagonists and other characters. Insert humor. Dial up the fun and games that happen during/alongside the boring thing. Then on the boring bits: leave only the parts that have significance on the plot. Like you said, pace is important in MG as it's hard to get those young reader keep turning to the next page rather than playing video games!

Having said that, sometimes it's hard to know what to cut without actually writing them out. So give yourself permission to write everything you want, and go back to it later with a critical eye and a ruthless axe.

 

[Brightdreamer]

Generally speaking, if it's boring you, it's boring the reader. Cut it.

But you can make "boring" and "repetitive" stuff interesting if you make it carry extra weight. Use those scenes to establish character, provide interactions that drive relationships and the story forward, foreshadow events, echo themes.

Someone upthread suggested "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" (Ann Braden), which is indeed a good one to read. The girl MC comes from an unstable and abusive home (though she doesn't recognize the latter quite yet), and is so withdrawn and used to being made fun of and belittled for her poverty that she'd rather fail on an assignment than present it to the class. A teacher, seeing this, more or less forces her to join the debate club - her worst nightmare come true! But that club helps her start understanding what's going on around her, how tactics she learns in debate club are actually at play all around her... and what's going on at home with Mom's new "perfect" boyfriend and how he treats them. I don't recall too many repetitive scenes of her learning technicalities and details of debates, but Braden manages to make the meetings she does present pull their full weight in the story, always advancing the MC's character growth even when she fails. Later, she manages to use what she learns at the debate club to stand up and speak out when she most needs to (not really a spoiler; I mean, it wouldn't be much of a story if she didn't grow or change at all..). There was no need for a blow-by-blow of every meeting and every mock debate to get there, though; it was as much about her using what she learned outside the meetings as it was about the meetings themselves.

 

[FlightlessBird]

Random thoughts:

I try to make every scene serve several purposes.

Example: If I need to explain the process of making meringues because it's relevant later, I might bring in Meg's anxiety disorder and her relationships. Meg freaks out and takes excess precautions when dealing with raw eggs. Meg's boyfriend Joe demonstrates fraying patience with Meg's anxiety. Meg's new friend Amy does a much better job of pragmatically dealing with Meg's concerns, and that solidifies the friendship between Meg and Amy. But meanwhile, we found out that these meringues must be whipped to the soft peak stage and baked slowly for twelve hours, which is what we need as a clue for the murder later.

So, let's say that Susan and Barbara are practicing debate, Susan trying to teach Barbara, and Susan chooses a topic that for some reason is very personal to Barbara. Susan explains debating tactics that you need to be explained, but instead of it being an ultra boring, "Oh, yes, of course, I see," scene, Barbara is angry and snapping and hurt, Susan is befuddled as to why, and the scene transitions to why the topic is personal for Barbara.

Maybe Barbara is a people pleaser in real life, and so that makes it harder for her to go for the kill in debate. That, again, gives some personal angle to the debate stuff. Maybe Barbara comes up with a speech that is a serious attack on something that's personal Frances, who's been mean to Barbara. So it's not just a boring speech, but instead has the reader going, "Go, Barbara!"

 

[L.Zihe]

... mean girls mathletes treatment?

...shockingly, this was very helpful actually. Thank you!

Hey L.Zihe! Nice to see another MG author! I'm currently writing a basketball book so I have a similar issue of trying to pace events throughout a season. I also did Speech & Debate from 8th-12th grade.

Hi there! I remember spotting your first chapter - don't remember if I left a comment or not, but it was an entertaining read!

Is this your protagonist's first time with Speech & Debate related activities, or do they have experience with it already? And, somewhat related, what's your idea for their arc (for instance do they start out bad and hating it but end up bad and loving it).

MC joins the club to A) fulfill a requirement for a leadership-related extracurricular that's on the path to her primary goal B) put something shiny on her resume. Main arc is she realizes she chose debate just because that was the "typical" thing to do, and ends up on the speech side of speech and debate because that's her real passion. (Not a diss on debate though - she does come to realize why it appeals to other people, and half the cast consists of hardcore debate kids.) This arc follows along her main arc of rejecting perfectionism and people-pleasing tendencies. The S&D is pretty major, maybe 50%-60% of the plot.

Trust me, us debate nerds do not find it boring at all!

As a debate nerd myself, it's certainly not boring! Love it for the adrenaline, actually. Also a speech nerd. (Did you compete on the NSDA circuit? Just curious haha.)

The Benefits of Being an Octopus has a girl forced into a debate club. You might try it. Good book anyway.​

Just put it on hold! Thank you so much for the suggestion!

 

[L.Zihe]

I would expect to have just enough of the boring part to show the reason, then switch to a more engaging scene.

Hmm, I think you're right - less is more here, probably. Time to take advantage of MG's insanely low chapter word count requirements and just cut away the second the relevant bit is over.

just some random ideas from top of my head:

Thank you! Some of these are the literary equivalent of gold - I think I might straight up steal the note passing if you don't mind...

Insert humor. Dial up the fun and games that happen during/alongside the boring thing.

Ah hi!! Unfortunately, I don't think my sense of humor aligns with what elementary schoolers find funny (what do elementary schoolers find funny now?? I barely knew when I was an elementary schooler) but fun and games I think I can do.

So give yourself permission to write everything you want, and go back to it later with a critical eye and a ruthless axe.

I think I needed to hear that, thank you! It's very comforting to be reminded my work doesn't need to be remotely good on the first pass.

Generally speaking, if it's boring you, it's boring the reader. Cut it.

This seems to be the general advice. It seems I really need to take it to heart and kill all the elaborate cases I had them run, as slightly tragic as that is.

Someone upthread suggested "The Benefits of Being an Octopus" (Ann Braden), which is indeed a good one to read. The girl MC comes from an unstable and abusive home (though she doesn't recognize the latter quite yet), and is so withdrawn and used to being made fun of and belittled for her poverty that she'd rather fail on an assignment than present it to the class. A teacher, seeing this, more or less forces her to join the debate club - her worst nightmare come true! But that club helps her start understanding what's going on around her, how tactics she learns in debate club are actually at play all around her... and what's going on at home with Mom's new "perfect" boyfriend and how he treats them. I don't recall too many repetitive scenes of her learning technicalities and details of debates, but Braden manages to make the meetings she does present pull their full weight in the story, always advancing the MC's character growth even when she fails. Later, she manages to use what she learns at the debate club to stand up and speak out when she most needs to (not really a spoiler; I mean, it wouldn't be much of a story if she didn't grow or change at all..). There was no need for a blow-by-blow of every meeting and every mock debate to get there, though; it was as much about her using what she learned outside the meetings as it was about the meetings themselves.

This sounds like exactly what I need. Thank you so much!

I try to make every scene serve several purposes.

This also seems to be the general consensus. Thank you for the concrete examples!

we found out that these meringues must be whipped to the soft peak stage and baked slowly for twelve hours, which is what we need as a clue for the murder later.

(What murder might have meringues as a clue?! Genuine curiosity.)

 

[Silenia]

Thank you! Some of these are the literary equivalent of gold - I think I might straight up steal the note passing if you don't mind...

Please feel free to!

 

[CMBright]

Ah hi!! Unfortunately, I don't think my sense of humor aligns with what elementary schoolers find funny (what do elementary schoolers find funny now?? I barely knew when I was an elementary schooler) but fun and games I think I can do.

If my 13yo is any indication, the trifecta of humor is based on pooping, peeing and farting. I'd suggest copies of Captain Underpants. I tend to sigh, Kid finds it hilarious. Like Professor P. Yes, the name is based on pooping, then the spelling altered just enough to sound German-ish. Was it Poopenstein? Another favorite for humor was Phineas and Ferb. Binging some reruns or they are probably streaming, maybe on Disney+ might be a good idea. There are a lot of sight gags, like the villain recognizing Perry as Agent P in the hat but seeing a random platypus when Perry takes the hat off. That one is a running gag. Mission Impossible was another humorous cartoon the Kid loved/loves. I seem to know more about Kid's cartoon watching habits than book reading, though Kid does both.

As a sub, something as simple as a kid passing gas in class can trigger gales of laughter in their classmates.

Aside from body waste humor, I love puns. Sometimes I can get Kid laughing to the point of needing to use the restroom, sometimes my puns flop with Kiddo. Sorry, I can't remember which tend to be which, it's an in the moment kind of thing. Spouse gets told not to tell Dad jokes because they aren't funny. Back in grade school, Kid tried to make up knock, knock jokes, the punchlines always involved things raining on heads with ice cream raining being one I remember. I don't know if kids their age found those funny, Kid thought they were hilarious and couldn't understand why I didn't.

Two I remember from my own grade school days and Kid enjoyed are "why didn't the skeleton cross the road?" with the punchline being "it didn't have the guts to do it" and "why did the turkey cross the road?" with the punchline of "it was tied to the chicken".

ETA: Kim Possible. Teen girl with sidekick with a pet naked mole rat. Mission Impossible was in reruns back when I was in middle school.

 

[Akvranel]

Okay, so if she's doing it because she has to, I can see how the 'boring' part factors in (and yeah, my preference was speech, too. I think most of the people on my team who preferred debate did Extemporaneous as their speech event).

As many have suggested, you can 'cut the boring parts out.' Sometimes, there are going to be things you don't want to show, but I think viewing those things as boring might be the wrong attitude.

Even if your character finds it boring, you, the author, don't have to, if you focus on the why of what's making it boring.

- She's bored at practice. When confronted by a side character who takes the activity seriously, your MC expresses her true feelings about the team, which turns into an argument.

- She's trying to research her debate topic. Okay, zoning out reading a news article is boring . . . but what isn't? Smashing her head against the computer and alarming her entire team/family as she groans in frustration over her inability that she can't find any articles on this stupid debate topic. All her dreams of having that shiny college resume are slipping away and she is forever doomed.
Or, alternatively, she gets completely sidetracked researching something else, or going on social media, and doesn't finish writing her case in time to the ire of her team/partner.

- You can even have her boredom backfire as she goes into a tournament unprepared & she gets crushed in a debate crossfire - she doesn't have sources, she doesn't have arguments, it's a slaughter and her perfectionist self cannot stand that! (bonus points if she gets obliterated by the bully antagonist . . . or antagonist who is nice but just better than her, not everyone needs to be a bully in MG LoL)

- Some 'funny' mishaps can also help out . . . I have plenty of debate fails if you need stories. The one I remember as an 8th grader was not knowing how to respond, so I just said "You're just wrong." I did not win that round, surprisingly.

Given the arc of change you've laid out, the "BORING, LAME DEBATE" needs to be in the story, because she hates it at first (I love that troupe, by the way). But, again, it should only be boring to her.
There are other emotions which could driving this - she's anxious because she needs it for her goal; she's frustrated because it's not fun/she's bad; she hates one of her teammates; she's stuck up, viewing herself as better than these lame debate nerds. There's a lot of ways to spice up these sorts of scenes.

Then, as her attitude changes, you can start writing the bits that she finds interesting. It sounds like you love Speech & Debate, too, so you should know how to do that!

And, since it's about 50-60% of the plot, I'd recommend finding a way to make the debate topic relevant to whatever is going on in the rest of the story. That will help massively with reader engagement, because you'll be able to have the coveted moment of "I've realized how to win this debate and my argument also applies to my personal struggle/journey".

 

[Akvranel]

Hi there! I remember spotting your first chapter - don't remember if I left a comment or not, but it was an entertaining read!

Aww, thanks!

B) put something shiny on her resume. This arc follows along her main arc of rejecting perfectionism and people-pleasing tendencies.

I'll also recommend This Again by Adam Borba. It's a time travel book about a kid who is overly focused about getting on student council so he can get into Harvard (he's in 8th grade LoL). He starts doing increasingly wacky things, alienating his friends, etc, but will realize he needs to reject perfectionism and people-pleasing tendencies.

If nothing else, I found it to be a really fun book & it sounds like even if the plot structure is different, your MCs have the same journey so I bet it'll be helpful for you.

Did you compete on the NSDA circuit? Just curious haha.

I competed in Arizona which I believe was part of the NSDA. I was competing from 2009-2013. Aside from competing at the big Harvard tournament my senior year, though, I stayed in AZ the whole time.

My main events were Public Forum Debate; Duo Interpretation; and Prose (which was a state-specific event - that wasn't available at national level tournaments).

As a debate nerd myself, it's certainly not boring! Love it for the adrenaline, actually. Also a speech nerd.

Oh good, so you know!

At the risk of derailing your thread with nerding out over debate, what were your events?

 

[Akvranel]

As far as pacing goes, this is where the focus on what's interesting advice really shines. Another way to look at it is focus on what's important.

When you go to a tournament, you don't need to show every round, just whichever moment at the tournament is most impactful. And you can flat out skip some of them with lines like "TEAMMATE is on my case today! We had another tournament last weekend and it went about as great as the last one." You don't even need to acknowledge what happened.

Same thing goes for practices. Focus on the practices where something meaningful happens. For my story, I have a lot of practices. These practices all have gameplay in them, but at their core, I'm using them to increase the tension between the MC and the antagonist. In a few places, I'm also setting something up - for instance there is a subplot with the MC being terrible at remembering basketball plays, so one practice has him flubbing the plays and getting frustrated about how he, the star player, looks like a total idiot.

Overall, I find the best thing to do is to think about what the 'story' of your debate scene is going to be. What is the purpose on a character and plot level? What is this scene you trying to further?
Then, when you get to the debate matches, add in: what is the ebb & flow of the debate? who is going to win? what will character learn (or fail to learn) from this experience.

From a streamlining perspective, you might need to cut out speech, unless that will also feed into your main plot. Just a consideration - you could make it work if you have a great idea for it.

I am very excited at the prospect of a debate book! Good luck, and I look forward to seeing more about it!

 

[CMBright]

Thinking of sports drills, running up and down stairs is not inherently interesting. Back in school, when I wanted to be on the vollyball team, I imagined encouraging our dog to keep up with me to keep myself going. The dog was at home. Pushups, situps, whatever, aren't inherently interesting, which might be why movies and TV shows use montages.

Showing the kid's internal struggle in the scene to keep going could be interesting, showing the kid's determination to improve. A reader might see themself in the character, whether it is determination, fear of being the weak player on the team, etc.

Alternately, adding an incident to make it more interesting. Maybe a side character throws a fit about how many sprints the Coach demands of them. Maybe someone throws up or has to be helped to the nurse's office because they worked out too hard. Maybe one of the Sports Moms starts arguing with the Coach about the Couch making them work out too hard or going too soft on the kids or screaming about the Coach's means of "encouragement". Along the lines of @Akvranel's suggestions upthread, finding a way to make it interesting.

The delayed payoff, of course, is the skills shown (in a brief and interesting way) by getting through the drills help in the Big Game. In whatever way the good showing in the Big Game plays out in your narrative.

 

[L.Zihe]

I'll also recommend This Again by Adam Borba. It's a time travel book about a kid who is overly focused about getting on student council so he can get into Harvard (he's in 8th grade LoL).

Oh help - my MC's central motivation is literally to get into student council, except she's in 7th grade. Now I need to read this to make sure I'm not accidentally copying a plot I've never heard of. Thanks for mentioning it haha!

I competed in Arizona which I believe was part of the NSDA. I was competing from 2009-2013. Aside from competing at the big Harvard tournament my senior year, though, I stayed in AZ the whole time.

Oh that's awesome! In high school, our whole team wasn't allowed to go to Harvard because some idiots two years ago snuck into the tournament without parental permission. Sounds like you had a good time though!

My main events were Public Forum Debate; Duo Interpretation; and Prose (which was a state-specific event - that wasn't available at national level tournaments)

Ah, PuFo is an absolute riot! I was horrible at Duo, but it's one of my favorites to spectate. Prose is on the collegiate circuit - don't know why it's not on the NSDA nats circuit, it's an interesting event!

At the risk of derailing your thread with nerding out over debate, what were your events?

Oh well, the thread started with debate, so technically we're not derailing (right? if I'm breaking some AW rule please come give me a slap on the wrist). I was known on the team as the jack of all trades, so I dabbled in a bit of everything, but my pride and joy were the limited prep speech events (extemp and impromptu, which is state-specific to WA, but it's also at nationals as a supplemental event) and Worlds schools debate. In college, I'm doing IPDA debate, which is a lim prep debate format, so really just smushing my favorite bits of debate and speech together.

And you can flat out skip some of them with lines like "TEAMMATE is on my case today! We had another tournament last weekend and it went about as great as the last one."

I think I was worried that just blowing by these moments would lessen their impact, but it sounds like it should be fine as long as the most important moments get shown.

Then, when you get to the debate matches, add in: what is the ebb & flow of the debate? who is going to win? what will character learn (or fail to learn) from this experience.

This seems like a good concrete direction to go in. I'm thinking I need to be more like a commentator than just giving a transcript of the debate in the bits I do show.

From a streamlining perspective, you might need to cut out speech, unless that will also feed into your main plot. Just a consideration - you could make it work if you have a great idea for it.

Not what I wanted to hear but maybe what I needed to hear. I'll have to really think on this.

Thank you so much for all your help!

 

[L.Zihe]

If my 13yo is any indication, the trifecta of humor is based on pooping, peeing and farting.

Well, lovely to see that the general direction of humor truly hasn't seriously shifted since I was in elementary school. (Except now "skibidi" is also funny?)

the villain recognizing Perry as Agent P in the hat but seeing a random platypus when Perry takes the hat off.

This makes me think of the running joke in the Pokemon anime where the heroes can never identify the villains if they're in disguise, even if the disguise is literally just a fake mustache or a different shirt, but then as soon as they rip off the costume, the heroes immediately realize its them.

Back in grade school, Kid tried to make up knock, knock jokes, the punchlines always involved things raining on heads with ice cream raining being one I remember.

This actually gave me some good inspiration haha, it seems some things are just funny because of repetition. I think I'll try and think of a running gag of sorts. Thank you for taking the time to bestow your knowledge of preteen humor upon me.

Two I remember from my own grade school days and Kid enjoyed are "why didn't the skeleton cross the road?" with the punchline being "it didn't have the guts to do it" and "why did the turkey cross the road?" with the punchline of "it was tied to the chicken".

I'm ashamed to admit I laughed at the turkey one.

 

[CMBright]

This makes me think of the running joke in the Pokemon anime where the heroes can never identify the villains if they're in disguise, even if the disguise is literally just a fake mustache or a different shirt, but then as soon as they rip off the costume, the heroes immediately realize its them.

I think I remember the same gag back in the old Bug's Bunny and similar era cartoons. It's a clasic for a reason.

 

[Akvranel]

If you want to include speech events in the story, by all means try to make it work - that's what the draft is for!

Oh help - my MC's central motivation is literally to get into student council, except she's in 7th grade. Now I need to read this to make sure I'm not accidentally copying a plot I've never heard of. Thanks for mentioning it haha!

All stories have been done before, so don't sweat it! More than likely, reading a similar book will give ideas to improve your own.
It's not as common as 'the bully' but getting into [insert club] is still pretty common in MG, so I don't think anyone will view yours as copying.

Oh that's awesome! In high school, our whole team wasn't allowed to go to Harvard because some idiots two years ago snuck into the tournament without parental permission. Sounds like you had a good time though!

Oh no! Sorry to hear that - it's a great tournament.
Although, I might have come close to doing something similar . . . I was also a Cross Country/Track Athlete, so I may or may not have left the hotel without telling anyone and gone on a 5-mile run . . . fortunately my parents blamed me and not my coach for said stupidity.

Ah, PuFo is an absolute riot! I was horrible at Duo, but it's one of my favorites to spectate. Prose is on the collegiate circuit - don't know why it's not on the NSDA nats circuit, it's an interesting event!

Oh well, the thread started with debate, so technically we're not derailing (right? if I'm breaking some AW rule please come give me a slap on the wrist). I was known on the team as the jack of all trades, so I dabbled in a bit of everything, but my pride and joy were the limited prep speech events (extemp and impromptu, which is state-specific to WA, but it's also at nationals as a supplemental event) and Worlds schools debate. In college, I'm doing IPDA debate, which is a lim prep debate format, so really just smushing my favorite bits of debate and speech together.

I loved spectating Duo, too. It was so good watching how creative the teams got with their blocking. Although if we're at the national-level tournament, nothing beats the Humor in the finals. As for watching the prelims in humor . . . well, let's just say you might have to see my freshman year humor, which you did not want to see .

AZ has impromptu, also. It was my fallback event if my duo partner ever got sick. Extemp is a hard core event, though! We had two girls who were absolutely fantastic at it - they spent all of high school reading news articles and filing them away.

 

[Conductor Chroma]

A lot of MG books are about joining a sport, training for an event, going on a journey - side note, but "the journey" as a trope has always been strange to me because there is so much mind-numbingly boring walking/driving involved in travel - or otherwise participating in a long-term activity. At the same time, MG and kidlit in general are really strict on avoiding detailed, repetitive, or boring sequences. The amount of time spent on an activity is often important to the stakes (something matters a lot more when you've worked really hard for it), or the learning itself pushes some kind of character growth (think showing critical characterization through how they make plays in basketball or something). So how do writers decide how much to show?

My specific project has a speech and debate club as a really core part of the plot, and most of the characters attend it and go to several tournaments through the year. I'm struggling with how I can balance actually writing out speeches with not making it horrifically dull or technical. I'm also struggling to convey how tiring and boring debate is to my protagonist without making the reader sit through long boring sequences - just having her think about being bored feels like telling the audience, but actually boring the audience is not the goal. Finally, I haven't quite figured out how to pace a story where debate tournaments are happening every month or so. Thoughts? Solutions?

It's registering as I write this all out that this is kind of a big and vague problem, so more concretely, how do you guys decide what scenes to describe, and how do you deal with dialogue that is too long/technical to include in full?

(And minimally related, but does anyone know of MG that specifically features competitive speech or debate for me to see how it was done before? I've done some reading, but the books I read were either about delivering a single speech at a single occasion, or they were YA where the audience is likely much more receptive to the technical jargon.)

Thanks in advance!!

The character's goal/need and plot/emotional arc may be a good guide. Is there one particular speech she's really sweating? I definitely wouldn't include the entire speeches, especially at every tourney, unless there's a relevant one at a big moment. Focus more on your character's emotions--show her bored. Or maybe it's there's a moment when it's so automatic she can't remember if she even said all the words, etc. Focus on the character's emotional arc.

I have a similar situation in that my character is musician who gets her first big solo. Though I mention her practicing several times (and worrying about how hard it is), I actually have only three scenes in the whole book where she's playing in the orchestra: the first, she blows the solo (heightening her anxiety about it); the second, the orchestra rehearses other pieces and she's kinda bummed she doesn't get a crack at her solo, because she's grown more confident by this point; the final, at the climax, she plays it beautifully. I don't know if this example is helpful but thought I'd offer it.