Problem: Scenes that are unavoidable, but boring
More specifically: Two of my book series' main characters are (temporarily) diplomats. It's unavoidable to the progress of the plot. But diplomacy is inherently slow and boring. So, the general question is: How does one handle boring but necessary scenes? Both general and specific answers welcome. Examples from successful books also welcome.
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In addition to the always wise advice to omit the boring parts...
- Summarize the boring parts in a short paragraph. Maybe simply refer to them in passing.
- Complicate the terms of the negotiation until the negotiation becomes interesting.
- Add conflicts or problems until the scene becomes interesting. These conflicts need not be related to the subject of the negotiation.
- Add a ticking clock. The ticking clock need not be directly related to the subject of the negotiation.
- Disable the viewpoint character in some way, such as by distraction, injury, fatigue, urgent concerns elsewhere, or some other condition that diminishes the character's abilities.
- Increase the stakes of the negotiation.
- Complicate the relationships among the negotiating parties. Ex spouse. Former boss. Parent or child. The guy who shot the viewpoint character's father and got away with it.
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If the scene is boring, it’s not necessary.
Think about what you actually need to convey to the reader to move the plot forward, write something interesting that delivers that necessary information, and skip everything else.
This may be a good time to break the “show, don’t tell” rule. “Eight hours and two liters of vodka later, Ambassador Königsberg agreed to waive the Union’s trade rights on Svalbard VII in exchange for a military base on Copernicus Prime and five tons of unobtainium.” Carriage return, hash mark, carriage return, onward.
If the scene is necessary because of some shift in a character (e.g., the Ambassador decides that he wants to betray the Union), then find some interesting event that tips the balance in the character’s mind, dramatize that event, and summarize what comes before and after.
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The other answers have shown how diplomacy can be interesting.
But lets assume your question means that it is important to your plot that your characters are diplomats, but that their work as diplomats is not important to your plot, for example because their role as diplomats allows them to easily cross a border or gain access to some place or information or simply gives them a cover story.
This is similar to a character sleeping: its what they have to do, but its not usually interesting from the point of the plot and you wouldn't bore the readers with telling how your character lays down, pulls up the blanket, closes his eyes, starts to drift off listening to the wind, what he dreams about, how he moves in REM phases, how the light changes with the clouds moving across the moon etc. You just briefly state that they sleep, no more.
With everything else, like diplomacy, you can do the same:
After he was done, John went to bed. When he got up in the morning ...
Pete and Paul went to meet the ambassador. When they came out of the embassy ...
You might include the topics discussed, the outcome of the conversation and anything else in such a short summary, or simply have the visit to the ambassador happen between scenes and let your characters discuss the meeting:
"Okay, let's go see the ambassador."
*
When they came out, Bob and John looked at each other and shrugged. "Well, that was probably the most boring hour in my life."
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If you want examples of successful diplomacy, try CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series, which I think is up to 15 books so far. The main character, Bren, is a diplomat between humans and the non-human species who are native to the planet where the humans crash-landed. Positively fascinating. Hard going at times, but I was never bored.
And diplomacy is not inherently boring if the stakes are sufficiently high. If the failure of diplomacy is war, genocide, invasion, name your armageddon, then jeez, the reader is going pay attention.
Also, don't make everyone invested in the outcome.
- What if your diplomat is a "cowboy" who's overly impressed with himself? Or she's a stickler for the rulebook no matter what? (You can find both of those in Star Trek, I think.)
- It's been quipped about a certain political stalemate in our own time that one party "never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity." What if one of your diplomats is an idiot, or an obstructionist, or a religious nutcase? (Martin Sheen's president in the movie of The Dead Zone.)
- What if your diplomat is a sentient AI come to test your species before annihilating it? (Battlestar Galatica, the Ron Moore version, the miniseries.)
- What if your diplomat doesn't speak the language, or the translator disappears? (Also Trek, "Loud as a Whisper.")
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