once he's through the door. . .

[marycatelli]

and has fired off that gun, or not. . . .he can become a problem.

Anything thrown into the mix can be a problem.  Because sometimes the story takes the element and runs with it, and sometimes it's just an amusing interlude.  It can survive as an amusing interlude, if it's amusing enough, and short enough, and gives local color or reveals character when the story doesn't move.

But stories tend to be pretty relentless about needing to go onward.  Even stories with an ambling pace have more forward motion in their events that may appear at first glance.

Sometimes the notion manages to weave itself into the plot, or burst into a parallel subplot that interweaves with the main, but not always.  And it can be so very hard to determine which interludes really have to go.  Especially if any given one is unobjectionable, but the story has managed to accumulate several, so some of them have to go regardless.

Comments

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

I've noticed this question in some of my work. What do you ask yourself, when you sort out which cute but not-forwarding goes, and which part stays?

[marycatelli]

If I've let the story sit and cool long enough, I usually find it obvious.

Even the first time I see it.

However, it's very common for me to stop revising at that point for the day and come back the next day. It tends to be a lot easier the next day. Mulling overnight must do something.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Almost always. "The morning is wiser than the evening" as the Russian fairy tales put it.

[marycatelli]

Yes -- I love that line -- even though I don't get, say, a magical bird-husband fixing the problem for me overnight

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

And it can be so very hard to determine which interludes really have to go. Especially if any given one is unobjectionable, but the story has managed to accumulate several, so some of them have to go regardless.

Or have to get condensed to richness.

My favorite line in L.M. Montgomery is still "That was Herman Longshore, the one who came home drunk one night and varnished his mother's kitchen with maple syrup."

None of which was ever mentioned again, anywhere in the book!

(Not his real name, which I can't remember.)

[marycatelli]

Ah, yes, distilling can also work.

sometimes.