: Re: How do you fill pages with fluff? I'm writing a book and I'm finished but it is way too short. It's not choppy but it's missing pieces. The difficult part is my writing style revolves around

@Kaufman555

Vote Up Vote Down

I've been digesting this question for awhile. I think I'm ready to answer...

Fill the gaps with good stuff instead of filler

Good stuff is harder to write than filler.

It's occasionally true that you need space between one scene and another, to give the reader time to breathe, perhaps. That one great action scene following on the heels of two other great actions scenes can just be overwhelming. But the space between too much of one thing shouldn't just be "space".

You already mentioned that you might need:

parts that glue the story together

And that is exactly what it sounds like you want help with. This is often done so poorly that people have a knee-jerk reaction to even the hint of "fluff". But it isn't fluff.

In the action scene of a well written movie, why do you root for the hero? Is it because the author dressed the bad guy in black? Is it because the hero is the one winning? Heavens no! It's because of that "fluff" scene where you were persuaded that the hero had motives you cared about and experiences that made her relatable.

Now, the audience may claim to be irritable because this is the 2,347th time that the hero is an orphan who likes puppies and wants to give away the Dark Lord's hoard of diamond-encrusted platinum toilet seats in order to solve world hunger... But irritation with repetition is just a symptom. It often isn't a different telling that people want - just a GOOD telling. But I digress.

Make space for your characters to build relationships with each other. Let them reflect on who they are and why they're doing what they're doing. Maybe not every scene you write to explore that will need to go into the story, but storytelling is not just about "A happened, and then B happened". Storytelling is about what people do, how they feel about it, but most of all it's about the meaning that they find (or fail to find) to justify their actions to themselves.

If your story is "missing pieces", it's not really finished. And finding ways to make your scenes fit together (often by putting scenes in, but sometimes by taking them out), is not going to "combat" your storyline. If done well, it will fill it out - and maybe even expand and deepen it.

(0)

Login to post a comment!