Cause and effect vs chronology
I had a scene all drafted that I kept coming back to because it just didn't feel right to me and I was having a hard time putting my finger on why, and thus a hard time making it better. At first, I thought it just had insufficient tension, so I upped that, and that was good, but I still wasn't happy.
Then it occurred to me that the scene felt like a dead end, portraying events that lacked a consequence. One of the ways fiction differs from life is that life proceeds mostly by chronology. You can link the events in most our lives by "and then." This happened, "and then" that happened. But in fiction, you need causality. Events need to be linked by "and so," "therefore," "because," "thus." That sense of cause and effect is part of what makes readers keep going so they can find out how the trail of events you're laying will come out.
This scene didn't seem to have a "so what." I puzzled over that for a while, trying to see if I could create a consequence or if I had to junk it and do something else. And finally, finally, it occurred to me to look back at what came before this scene to find if the character had a motive going into it or if I'd just hopped him along like a doll because I needed some information revealed. And lo and behold, there was a motive. I needed to bring it out more strongly and show how it was answered in this scene and then what came of it all after that, but it was there.
I'll have to see if I can revise and then leave this scene alone and go deal with some other problems. If it keeps pulling me back, then I've learned to trust the instinct that says it's not right yet and I won't fool anyone else so I shouldn't pretend I've fooled myself.
Then it occurred to me that the scene felt like a dead end, portraying events that lacked a consequence. One of the ways fiction differs from life is that life proceeds mostly by chronology. You can link the events in most our lives by "and then." This happened, "and then" that happened. But in fiction, you need causality. Events need to be linked by "and so," "therefore," "because," "thus." That sense of cause and effect is part of what makes readers keep going so they can find out how the trail of events you're laying will come out.
This scene didn't seem to have a "so what." I puzzled over that for a while, trying to see if I could create a consequence or if I had to junk it and do something else. And finally, finally, it occurred to me to look back at what came before this scene to find if the character had a motive going into it or if I'd just hopped him along like a doll because I needed some information revealed. And lo and behold, there was a motive. I needed to bring it out more strongly and show how it was answered in this scene and then what came of it all after that, but it was there.
I'll have to see if I can revise and then leave this scene alone and go deal with some other problems. If it keeps pulling me back, then I've learned to trust the instinct that says it's not right yet and I won't fool anyone else so I shouldn't pretend I've fooled myself.