On Scenes and Setup

Throughout Heart Search I have my heroine, Camellia, dreading going to the sentient starship, Nuada's Sword, because she has a secret she thinks it will winkle out of her. (That's a phrase from my Mom). I've mentioned this at least three times in anywhere from a line to a paragraph.

I'm feeling dissatisfied with the manuscript and thinking of cutting scenes, most particularly scenes where the hero and heroine aren't together, this is, after all, a romance. One of the scenes I was irritated at taking too long yesterday was Camellia at the starship (where she deftly distracts it).

But that is not a scene I can cut, or "tell" (such as this following paragraph: "Camellia and her friends went to the starship and she deftly distracted it from fulfilling its curiosity about her." That lets a reader down. Even if s/he doesn't realize why they are dissatisfied, it's because the follow through is not worthy of the set up.

I read a historical a couple years back where the hero and heroine were arguing and kissing and the door opened -- they would be caught in a compromising position...and the author skipped to the next day.

This was one of the vital scenes of the book and it wasn't on the page.

And, of course, I learned this from experience -- when I skipped over a vital argument between Trif Clover and Ilex Winterberry, and mentor called me on it. "You MUST write the scene." Yes. I must and I did.

So other scenes may go, but this one will stay.

May you enjoy the fullness of stories today.
Robin