As I was writing a particularly boring passage of Novel 1 today, I thought, "Wait a second. Isn't that a problem? If I think this part is boring shouldn't I just cut it?" I don't really know the answer to that. I feel like it's too important to cut entirely. It's also dialogue-heavy, and I'm quickly finding out that having my characters talk like "real people" is not the way to go here. The scene involves the protagonist confronting his boss about some corruption and crookery within the workplace. The purpose of the scene is to mostly establish the protagonist's character (his world, his motives, his Dungeons and Dragons alignment, what have you) and also to be used later as contrast for when the character and his situation changes. I'm trying to do a slow build-up without the scene coming across like The Firm.
I seem to be in the spirit of rule-breaking lately. First there's poems about parties, and then there's: "quote," he exclaimed! First thing I learned about fiction writing is to rely on "said" to carry you through those dialogue tags, but I'm more and more finding this to be one of those rules creative writing classes make up to keep dumb kids from going overboard. These rules include:
"No genre fiction"
"No rhyming poetry"
"No form poetry"
"No suicide" etc.
The purpose for these rules in creative writing classes is to provide order for bad writers, to get them to think outside of cliche. However, if you're a slave to rules like this, it can also make your work boring and a chore. I hate to bring it up again, but I did just read The Great Gatsby again, and Fitzgerald even uses "she yawned." So fuck it, if it's good enough for Fitzgerald it's good enough for me.
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