: How to write a character's progression In my story, the character has to learn a certain skill, with a mentor guiding him. I wrote the introduction and explained some principles regarding the

In my story, the character has to learn a certain skill, with a mentor guiding him. I wrote the introduction and explained some principles regarding the discipline, but I don't want to bore the reader with the practice. And it is necessary that the character improves, in the story.

I want to avoid to do something too abrupt, like "three month later, I was able to...". If it was a movie, it would be a montage!

How can I make that training chapter(s?) more interesting for the reader? Or how can I shorten that?

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@Moriarity138

You could focus the chapter around the character's evolving relationship with his mentor (and/or internal journey of self-improvement), with the training as the backdrop.

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@Debbie451

Once you've explained the process, you don't need to walk through the process again. You can have a few scenes which are set in whatever the setting is where the skill is practiced (computer lab, forge, bottom of a lake) and summarize with something like "Antonio realized it had only taken him 10 minutes to write the script which he'd struggled with for an hour before" or "This was Gobber's tenth sword, and it was already vastly better than the first" or "Now that Murgatroyd had gills, he could concentrate on his basket-weaving rather than trying to hold his breath underwater." The point of the scene for plot purposes will be something else, but you can mention in passing that he's improving.

You do the same thing later, but this time note how the person's skills have matured even more, and summarize more: He set up an entire database before lunch, he restocked the armory in a week, he wove an entire cauldron before the witch returned.

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: How to write a character's progression In my story, the character has to learn a certain skill, with a mentor guiding him. I wrote the introduction and explained some principles regarding the

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: What is the meaning of the dictum that the third act should contain the greatest crisis? I am working on a screenplay in which the protagonist has to surmount a crisis in each of the three

: How to do research to write characters from a different culture? Let's say I'm French and I'd like to write a Korean character. How can I build their personality traits, values, etc. in a

: For questions about commonly-used storytelling devices, such as character stereotypes, plot devices and other tricks of the trade.

: How do publishers expect authors to use social media to promote their books? I am new to the world of writing, and was initially surprised to read on some publishing advice website (eek) that

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