Don't Sweat the (Boring) Details #BYBin30

Image by Iván Tamás from Pixabay 

Details can be important for your story, especially if you are doing some world-building. Readers want to feel like they are there in the moment, tasting, touching, hearing, seeing and smelling their surroundings within each scene within the story.

However, no one wants to know the boring details, the details of the story that are unnecessary to conveying the story to them. No one want to know that Karen got up from the couch and walked over to the table. No one needs to know the tiny, excruciatingly boring details of someone's day-to-day life if those details don't move the story along in any real, or interesting way.

I once read a story by a very talented writer. Most of her book was riveting and intriguing. However, it took until the fifth chapter for that description of her story and her writing to be true. She could have deleted the entire first four chapters of the book without any negative impact on the story. In fact, it would have improved the story by sucking the reader into the action from the very first page instead of making them slog through the boring ordinary life of the character for months before they actually got to the action part of the story.

I read another story once where a very long and detailed day out with the main character and her mom was one of the scenes - a scene that had nothing to do with the story and did nothing for the story.

So take a look at your story and really evaluate each scene. Ask yourself, does this part add any necessary information to the story? Does it move the story forward? Can this scene be deleted from the story without any negative impact on the story? Or can the story even be improved without this part?

Have you found any scenes like this in your current story? Let me know in the comments!