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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47684
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/47684
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

> What if they spend three nights (and three scenes) at the same pitstop, but the scenes greatly develop the relationship between two important characters?

Yes, that would be fine, with one caveat that applies to every scene of your story: You still need some kind of tension, some reason for the reader to be wondering what is going to happen next, that is "coming up" in whatever you write.

The tension can be about the plot or problem they are facing, but it can also be about their relationship. Romance is one obvious way to introduce tension, but there are relationships other than romance, that need to evolve from Point A to Point B: e.g. a father that has just finished ten years in prison, with his teen daughter he hasn't seen since she was six. Or two former friends are forced together, one of whom betrayed the other for money.

Like Romance, these are "will they or won't they" relationships with a less certain outcome: Will the daughter forgive her criminal father? Will the former friends reconcile, or will one betray the other?

You have to make this relationship development _interesting_ for the reader, keep them anticipating and wanting to turn pages to hear what happens next, and they won't even notice the plot isn't advancing.

They start wondering when you will finish whenever the story loses tension, and it doesn't matter what kind of scene it was. The scene needs tension, conflict, an uncertain future. If it is predictable without surprises, shorten it to a description as much as possible, which may be to zero (cut the scene altogether). Identify the kind of change you are trying to show in that scene. Where is Point A, and What is Point B? This is true whether it is a relationship, the plot, the setting, new knowledge or clues discovered. There is inherent tension in that change, so you can sharpen your focus on a scene _designed_ to show the evolution from A to B.

Readers keep turning pages to see how something turns out, but they can get tired of that if what they are waiting for seems interminably delayed. There is not a lot of patience. You need a layered approach to this; they should want to see how a scene turns out; simultaneously wanting to see how the chapter turns out, how the Act turns out (whether they know what an Act is or not), and how the story turns out. The layered approach also means you need to keep introducing the steps on this path, one scene with tension begets the next scene with tension.

For example, you have them on a trip: The reason for this trip is a source of tension; the reader wants to know how THAT will turn out. That is something they can talk about, developing their relationship, and perhaps come up with decisions or ideas that become new points of tension: Will those work out?

How characters think, learn, succeed or fail is the source of these new elements of tension.

Original score: 4