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It’s probably pretty fundamental that you don’t want boring parts in your novel. Most of us don’t set out to be boring in our writing or life. But it happens that you’re at a party and, relaxed by a cocktail or two, you decide to share the thrills and spills of tracing your family tree with another guest who increasingly looks like he’s caught in a wind-tunnel. While he may be stuck – your reader will make a run for it.

Of course, you can write about things that interest you but do it in a way that captivates the reader and skip the boring parts. If you don’t – they will.

It doesn’t necessarily mean you need to deliver end-to-end non-stop excitement. It means that everything needs to contribute to the story or the character development in some way. So that every scene, every description, adds to the experience of your story.

Here’s a few scenarios to avoid:

Character wakes up in the morning, slowly opens her eyes, looks around, realises it is a new day etc etc. We wake every day of our lives so, unless there is something unusual such as an unexpected bedmate or the bed’s on fire,  zip along to when something interesting happens (preferably after breakfast which is also not very interesting).

Character takes a taxi to the airport, gets in a queue, checks in her baggage, waits in the departure lounge. That’s as long as the description of that activity needs to be. 21st century readers have, in the main, experienced air travel – it’s tedious and boring – they don’t want to read about it unless something significant happens.

Character has to go to outpatients/emergency at the hospital. Tell us (in as few words as possible) anything we need to know. It’s crowded/empty, the wait will be long/short – keep the story moving. Ditto character in doctor’s waiting room with crying baby, supermarket queue with rude shoppers. We’ve all been there.

Essentially, anything a character does which is part of most people’s everyday lives you can use shorthand for – we get it – make it snappy, tell us what is different from the everyday we all experience.

A good way to identify boring bits is to take a hard look at scenes you may have over developed because they feel comfortable and familiar. Ask yourself  would you ring a friend and inflict a blow-by-blow of waking up this morning? Now if something unusual happened – that’s another story. writing tips for beginners

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