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Fillers
Topic Started: May 31 2013, 02:57 PM (69 Views)
theangelwiththeblackestwings
Administrator
So, you’ve just had a mountain of action, guns were blazing, your antagonist was beaten down and your protagonist has won, for the moment anyway. What happens now? You don’t want to go straight into more action and instead want a nice quiet chapter… But what is this and what does it want from me? How is it going to keep the reader’s attention in between such amazing climaxes and action scenes? Simple, something else is going to happen.
In a middle chapter or filler scene as they can be called, these are a lull in the action or main plot in the story and can show a smaller subplot or a character development or can even foreshadow what may happen next in a story but whatever they are not necessarily part of the main plotline. These give your characters and readers a break from the action.
How to write an interesting filler scene;
There is no set way to do this. A filler scene can be anything, absolutely anything, so I’m going to talk through the three main things filler scenes can do.

Develop a character:
Character development is vital for a story and the character must constantly be adapting to what is happening around them, a filler scene is a good way to show this as it can simply be a scene filled with the characters thoughts or motions, ones that now differ from the one they did at the beginning of the novel. For instance; in one of my stories, my main character is shown to be fearless and unafraid to die. After a particular scene though, in one of my fillers we see that the character now has a slight tremor in their hand this shows that she had adapted to her experience. Filler scenes are great for this as a reader most likely notice such a small thing as a trembling hand in the middle of an action packed scene.
A filler can show a developing relationship between two characters, simply by means of conversation. Although instead of using mainly dialogue to show your points, in a filler scene, where there most likely won’t be much action, delve into their heads and show the reader the characters’ thoughts about each other. Don’t be afraid to describe everything about their interaction, although try to be practical, sure the guy might have awesome hair but the reader doesn’t need reminded of it every second sentence.

Foreshadowing:
I personally love foreshadowing and a filler is a great way to do it. A foreshadow can be anything, it can show what character is going to die, who they will marry, etc.

Subplot:
This is my favourite use for a filler scene, the subplot. This can have no relation to the main plotline or it can interlock constantly with it. This also provides somewhere to go in your filler scene as you can revert back to your subplot all the time. The main plotline may be a tale of espionage whereas the subplot may be finding a puppy on the street. I love adding subplots into filler scenes as they keep excitement going without a constant need for action. A subplot can be the length of a filler scene but can show the reader something important for later in the novel. For example, lock your character out of their house and try to get them back in, if they lock pick the door that will explain why in chapter 53 they can lock pick the enemy’s door.

How to keep them interesting.:
Keeping a filler scene interesting is the exact same as keeping the rest of your novel interesting, something has to be happening. Your style, use of dialogue and description will need to be top of their game for a filler scene. Something I should probably say about filler scenes is that I don’t like calling them that as in a novel, you shouldn’t be able to point to a scene and say that it is a filler, because in your story everything should be relevant to your plot and your ending, read a filler and if it sounds boring to you, how do you expect your readers to like it?

Filler ideas:

If in doubt send a random character into the room with a gun.
The lights black out
Stuck in the elevator
Accidently handcuffed together
A new pet
Someone can’t keep a secret
‘It’s not what it looks like!’
Your character gets locked out
Give them 15 minutes of fame
Lottery ticket




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