Fill The Gap

This exercise is called Fill The Gap because (one billion pounds for anyone who guesses the answer)…..

YES!! Clever you! It’s because you fill the gap. How smart of you.

Okay, fill the gap of what?

You know when you think up two amazingly thrilling and exciting plots for you story, but you don’t know what’s going to happen between those plots? You’re going to fill the gap between those plots! Now that’s exciting.

When that happens for me (one boring bits sandwiched between two awesome bits), I try ones of the following:

1. I toss in a bit of romance. It’s nice to have a romantic break here and there between all the bungee jumping and sky diving your characters do!

2. I also stuff in hints about what’s going to happen. So, if your character has just entered a fighting program and passed the test that qualifies her (that’s exciting thing 1), and then she does some training, then she discovers her best friend is captured by a group of rebels (exciting thing 2). We don’t want the boring training bit. Maybe throw in something about one of her teammates asking her about the best friend. Or make your hero/heroine read an article about young girls going missing. Anything. HINT HINT HINT!

3. I shorten the boring part into a paragraph or less and jump straight to the next big event. Try to make clear that some time has passed, maybe describe several things that happened and what your protagonist feels about it. It pleases the reader and it’ll please you too!

4. Even it out. What that means is add a little bit of side drama too, between the main plots. Make the progressing of the story more like a slightly bumpy hill ride rather than flat. flat. flat. Then a huge mountain crops up out of nowhere.

5. Write the gap from another point of view. Describe what happened from the hidden villain’s POV? From the protagonist’s best friend? His/her sidekick? It might just open another brand new world by another’s POV!

 

I hope that’s helped you Fill The Gap! Do you have any other methods you use between two more important plots? Tell me in the comments!