Between scenes...filler.

[Xaiver]

I seem to have the most trouble with the 'filler' material. I can type out a scene without too much trouble, but I start to get stumped when it comes to traveling. Moving between the scenes shouldn't be that difficult, should it? Granted that it's a bit different than how we do it in real life... Hop in the car, get on the freeway, boom, you're there. Walking takes time, so I feel that I should be writing up a bit of time with that...am I wrong?

What do you do for filler scenes? Getting from A to B. Any advice?

-X

 

[Meka]

Personally, I don't think you have to have long chunks of prose to describe a long journey. It works sometimes, for example if your characters are travelling through a particularly interesting area of your land and you feel you can describe it well and make it necessary to your main plot. Otherwise, long journeys can be shortened to nothing more than a few paragraphs.

The first day of travel was uneventful, the skies were cloudless and the road easily followed. The company covered many miles and before sundown they had arrived in the city of _____. After gathering essential supplies the group passed on, through the city and out onto the plains beyond. That night they slept at the foot of a small hill, sheltered from the wind; they did not wake until the first light of the second day.


That's a really rushed example, but you get the idea. This way you can have a whole weeks of travel done in only a few paragraphs. It'll need to be more descriptive than my example there, and you may want to mention a few troubles they have along the way, just to make it more believable...

During the afternoon of the third day the group came to a wide river, waters fast-flowing, steep banks on either side.

Then write a little prose describing how they overcame the obstacle, before continuing to write 'fast-travel'. I don't know if many others agree with my idea, I've read travel done in such a way in some books (including the Lord of the Rings) and found it worked for me. Remember, you can let the readers imagination do most of the work, they know how tiring a long journey would be and how tedious it becomes, you just need to point them in the right direction I hope this helped.

 

[Xaiver]

Actually, that's not bad. Something that I could easily do during a revision process. Write out the fun scenes and then hit the wandering and traveling when I am having all the fun of editing.

 

[Chilari]

Maybe it shouldn't all be filler. Surely something happens during the journey? If it's one person alone, they might encounter other people, and you can use the way they react to that to reiterate their state of mind or present circumstances - do they hide? Avoid human contact? Or do they approach other travellers or residents along the way? Do they have enough food for the journey, and if not, how do they deal with that problem?

If there's a group, the characters in it will interact with each other. You can use that interaction to establish and develop relationships between the characters. Do two characters walk together but barely talk? Or perhaps one character watches jealously as their ex or crush talks and laughs with someone else. If you've got two or more natural leaders in the group, there will be conflict there, which can develop during the journey to come to a head later, or result in a rift within the group depending on which leader each character sides with, which can later influence a character's decision as to who they trust at a crucial moment; or it could mark the start of a friendship or romantic relationship falling apart. Natural obstacles like rivers, cliffs, dense forests, bandit country and so on can be a catalyst for conflict between the characters, or a team-building event where the characters pull together.

So why not make the journey part of the story? They present interesting challenges, and on long journeys with minimal human contact outside the group, you can introduce conflicts arising from cabin fever, get characters talking about their motivations, hopes and dreams, and really play around with group dynamics. Or someone travelling alone can learn something new about the world in which they live - lose or regain their faith in humanity, experience self-doubt and overcome it, and so on.

Not that I'm saying you should always do this. With a group that is already well established, for example, the method Meka suggested will work well, but for individuals not used to travelling, and groups made up of people who have never met before, or never spent much time in each others company before, you can use long journeys as a way to set up later conflicts, give readers a greater insight into your characters, demonstrate a character learning and adapting, and so much more. If you do use a journey like that, though, it should be planned beforehand, so you can work out where conflicts created during the journey end up going in the context of the overall plot.

 

[JCFarnham]

Everyone seems to have hit the nail on the head here, but frankly, nothing should be filler. If you have filler then you've missed a fantastic opportunity for characterisation, or moving the plot forward, or, well what ever else you may want to achieve. If a passage has no purpose other than to move the characters to where you need them ... I personally would consider such passages as the first candidates for being cut.

Using the above methods for travel writing is good, but please, please, use them as a chance for characterisation if anything. Even if its a short mention that such-and-such didn't like the weather.

Can you tell that I'm from the school of thought that states everything should have a point? Yes, even an innocuous conversation with a nun should be important

 

[Shadoe]

Everything SHOULD have a point. If you've got a scene that doesn't add to your story, then there's no reason for it to be there.

 

[Xaiver]

True...

Well, right now I'm sort of outlining a scene where the protagonist is moving through a bog. I'm still sort of deciding if I want to do with the overall feel of the writing. Whether to do the agonizing detail in a Wheel of Time-like method, or if I wanted to go more utilitarian, more like Eddings.

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

If even the author recognises sections as filler, what do you think readers will think? It will likely bore them. Instead of calling it filler, follow these guys' advice and use it to develop characters, if there isn't an opportunity to develop the plot.

Also, about the 'Wheel of Time method' point you mentioned: consider the thread on this forum where most people stated they stopped reading mid-way through because it was so slow.

 

[Codey Amprim]

I see two good points in this thread, meaning two different viewpoints on this:

1: The "fast-travel" method. This is very useful if you're lacking inspiration/not knowing wtf to do and you want to throw some filler between important scenes. These should only take one to three paragraphs. one to describe the general setting that your characters/beings are traveling/marching/exploring/etc, another to describe a conflict or problem or nuisance that occured during the travel, such as the pestering heat, or if they've been traveling for a long time and their bodies would ache and they would more than likely smell, and a last paragraph to wrap things up.
This method isn't a bad way to go, and it's not really like you're betraying your work or anything, you can always go back and make it more detailed. Fast travel can just be a raw go at a filler that you can return to later on. This method SHOULD NOT be used if you are going through an interesting landscape or region, those should probably be explained a bit in detail.

2: Going in-depth with your world
This is particularly about traveling in fantasy, keep in mind. In my book, the first few chapters are a sequence of travel from one city, through a dangerous mountain range, to a neighboring city. Within this, I created senses of relationships with the characters as well as the environment - something I'm going to discuss. Going in depth has benefits and flaws. The benefits are that this gives the writer a chance to do what I had just said: Forging relationships and taking your reader through the scenic routes of your realms. It gives you chances to build upon relations and mention about the main plot the whole way, as well as possibly hinting at other problems and setting up areas for later works (sequels!).

It's downfall is simple, you may bore your reader. Too much traveling (which I need some opinions on here with my work) can bore the reader if it doesn't tag at the plot throughout it or at least deal with your major and minor characters and develop them. You need to keep your readers entertained and still involve the major plot otherwise you're writing a long sidetrack.



But above all, your fantasy work should have a combination of both. If the area is worth carving out in words, by all means do so; just let common sense take the reins with dealing about how long and thorough they will get. So, things to remember: Either is good, either is bad. Don't sidetrack and bore your readers by taking a vacation from the menacing plot you're dreading about getting to. Have a healthy combination of both. Whatever you do, if you're describing YOUR WORLD, don't do it wrong, do it justice.

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

As for the 'fast-travel method', this would be a good idea if you have multiple POV's: start an uneventful journey at the end of a chapter, switch POV for a chapter or so (depending on the amount of POV characters), then switch back and to the end of the journey.

 

[TWErvin2]

Like others said, 'filler' isn't really the way to go. There can be transitions for travel, but skipping ahead to the next scene if nothing happens during a couple of days during foot travel is perfectly fine.

Take a look at the works of some of your favorite authors. Read and study how they dealt with this concern. Watch how they use scenes, or a exposition/summary or dialogue or change in scenery (like if the characters were walking to a city three days away...next chapter they come around a turn in the road along a hillside and spot the city in the distance....or are accosted by beggars outside the city gate...or whatever you can come up with).

Ignore the urge to account for every minute or mile. When you tell a friend about a trip you took, say to Washington DC, you might relay some about traveling, but really you only focus on the highlights--interesting parts where there was something to see or something happened, an experience to relay to the listener.

If you feel the need to put the information in and then on the second draft, begin to trim, there's nothing wrong with that. It's a learning process.

 

[Xaiver]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. It's given me a bit to think about...and a few more questions. I think my use of the word "filler" was a bit more dramatic than I intended. When I say that, I don't mean fluff, I mean non-critical elements. Walking through a town and passing a fellow with an eye patch, who you may never see again, and doesn't actually advance the story any. More for immersion, I suppose. That's more of what I mean when I said "filler." Sorry for the confusion.

My major concern with fully fleshing out details is that my memory isn't amazing. I've got pages of notes that are in short hand so that I can remember things....character's eye color, type of clothing and so on.

If I have to take that down to the level of flora, I think that my notes would be a novel of their own.

 

[JCFarnham]

I thought you may have meant it that way.

I can't remember the author, but it was highlighted to me that in this book the protagonist talks to a nun (I eluded to it in my other post), and while this could be seen as the "Immersive" filler you're talking about, even THAT conversation had a purpose within the context of the story. A huge purpose apparently. Not that I know the name of the book, or read it, ha! (Sorry I can't provide a proper example!)

So despite one's definition of "filler", ANY moment can and should be used for a purpose, double purpose even, immersion AND advancement. To use a rather redundant sentence, waste words are wasted. So why include them? Is just immersion enough for your story, or could that eye-patch-wearing fellow mean something else? Should he mean something else?

Its always worth asking yourself whether your words are working for the story, or whether they exist for the sake of it. Could they be put to another use rather than JUST taking up space? In the end its down to the author and individual style, of course, but I always love writing that draws upon every possible mentioned detail towards the climax (not in a cliche way, mind you, but the clever thought out way.)

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

I've been reading a nice writing book called scene and structure, which actually has an explanation of what you are going through. The idea, in a very watered down way, is that after the action, you have reflection (the squeal) where the character(s) reflect on the previous action and determine what they will do. The concept is more complex than how I'm explaining it, but since it is still new to me, I am still figuring it all out myself. I know I've seen it in many stories, and it makes sense, but like all new concepts you have to come to terms with it and accept it before it has any real value.

There are things you do to move from one scene to the next, but you don't always have to fill in the space with something, sometimes you just need to say they went to wherever. Other times, things go on that are worth putting in the story. Action doesn't always have to involve fighting.

 

[CicadaGrrl]

Props up on this one.

 

[pskelding]

Shadoe and Johnny Cosmo hit the nail on the head and drove it through the board and out the other side!

Anything that does not move the PLOT forward should be removed from your book. However that does not mean that 'character scenes' need to be removed if they occur while traveling. But keep in mind those scenes should reflect the character's reacting to things that have happened to them in the book. If you are going to put something in as filler DON'T. Any decent book on plotting and structure will strongly advise you not to do that.

If you go back and read Wheel of Time other than worldbuilding the travel scenes clearly have some character development going on and a good portion of that is related to the characters reacting to things that have happened to them in the series.