How to make a story not just constant action?

Question

How do I write it so that the MC isn’t just facing conflict after conflict, but make it not seem like filler. I get that there needs to be SOMETHING going on, but at the same time they can’t just be like: escapes the antagonist(s) then goes on quest then goes on more quests like what can be put in between that’s not a conflict or problem. I get that stories need a problem or something to resolve or a task to do, but how to make that work with things, and not just do obscure time skips like “oh yeah by the way so-and-so’s been here for a month”.

So how do I write something that’s not just mini-quest 1, mini-quest 2 and so on until we get to the resolution?

Answer 1

In The Bestseller Code, Matthew Jockers and Jodie Archer identify the elements of bestselling fiction through computational text analysis.

Among other results, their research shows that bestsellers alternate between suspense, action, and conflict on the one hand and moments of human closeness and human connection on the other: "people communicating in moments of shared intimacy, shared chemistry, and shared bonds".

That is, between their quests, you protagonist talk, become friends, fall in love, care for their kids, visit their parents, and so on. They have a social life.

Answer 2

Stories where things just happen get very tedious very fast. Sometimes a great voice or imaginative element can defer that tediousness for a while.

Stories where things happen for a reason are more interesting. They get even more interesting when they happen because the main character did something, thought something, said something, or believed something that initiated the thing that happened.

One formula to get past stories were things just happen is to examine your story for the character's motivation, goals, and what is preventing them from reaching their goal -- that's the conflict.

The inciting incident doesn't need a reason. For instance, a meteor smashing into a desert city is a fine way to start a story. That kind of event is going to cause all sorts of problems and opportunities. What happens next should reasonably derive from the wants and needs of the main character. And, if there isn't a barrier to getting what they want or need, then the story is bland and isn't interesting.

For instance, a meteor hits and the main character wants to get family to safety so they get in the car and drive away. Dull! Maybe they're out of gas. Maybe the Army is quarantining the area. Those are rational consequences to the event that conflict with the main character's goals.

That model -- Motivation-Goal-Conflict -- triggers something in our minds that put us in the hot seat. What decisions would we make? What would we do? What would we feel? That is what makes stories engaging.

Also, the M-G-C model is fractal. You can use it to describe the entire story -- at low resolution. Then you can use it again to think up the chapters and the scenes. Since everything is happening because of a reason or a reaction to a consequence the story doesn't feel like it's a filler anymore.

Answer 3

Character Growth

Over the course of the story your character grows and changes. The character in the last scene should be noticeably different than the character in the first scene.

The grizzled skeptic opens up, or the young child gains independence, or the woman realizes she doesn't need a man to be happy, or...

So each conflict needs to contribute to these changes - the choices they make, the things they regret, etc. all contribute to this growth.

Slow Action

Not all obstacles are bad guys with guns. Sometimes allies don't see eye to eye, and need to figure out how to compromise. That's a conflict!

Sometimes the main character wants to do two things that are mutually exclusive. That's a conflict!

Sometimes neutral parties need to be talked into becoming allies. Etc.

All of these "less action-y" conflicts are good opportunities to show the reader your character's growth. Did they learn from the time they told the truth and everything blew up in their face? Now they lie to keep the peace. That's growth!

If fast-talking is going to be important to solving a problem later on, then you need to tee it up by showing the main character slowly getting better at solving social problems.

Once you start adding these character growth and "slower action" to your story, I think you'll find more variation in your pacing.

Answer 4

How do I write it so that the MC isn’t just facing conflict after conflict, but make it not seem like filler.

Simple, put other types of story drivers into the event structure. Discovery. Emotion. Morality. Ways to Live, and so on. The idea that stories are purely conflict comes from Percy Lubbock in 1921. It's untrue that previous stories were all driven by only conflict. Many theorists (including Aristotle) cited other things that would make a story move forward.

• Gustav Freytag argued for emotion and that contrasting emotion created the height in story.
• Aristotle argued for morality (though negative reinforcement really doesn't help his case)
• It's solidly argued by historians that Shakespeare and his contemporaries were trying to legitimize the Queen and King of the time, so morality was the central driver of the plot.
• In Chinese, Japanese and Korean storytelling, discovery and emotion were argued for in the 4-act story structure.
• In Australian Aboriginal stories and Native American tribes/nations, often the story driver is ways to live.
• Women solidly from about the 19th century to today have argued over and over for the story driver to be discovery. (White women)
• Africans have argued for the central story driver to be morality and memory.

Don't tie yourself to conflict only. Discovery often slows the story down significantly. Being addicted to conflict isn't always good.

Conflict as a story driver has its downsides, including that it often only allows for one or two emotions. That in order for things to get bigger, you need to amp up what? The anxiety and depression in the reader, but it's also good to have the character stop and reflect and smell the roses, to apply the lessons they learned.

And if you need to demonstrate what they've learned in a slower moment, discovery, emotion, morality as story drivers are stronger than conflict for that sort of thing. (Sometimes ways to live too.) You are 100% allowed to not have conflict as the story driver. Switch it up. Bring out other emotions... if you want wonder, then discovery is your ticket in. If you want thinking, then you probably will do better with morality questions. If you want to heighten a love scene, then playing with emotion might be better. The primary story driver can be different and still heighten if you play your cards right, but you don't need it to be conflict in all scenes. Conflict can feel EMPTY without those other story drivers because those other story drivers are older than conflict.

I get that stories need a problem or something to resolve or a task to do

Not always. It might be good to consume some slice of Life stories too and see how they work. Also, I have to say Indigenous North, central and South American especially coil stories defy this idea. Some of them live only on tone. Braided essays also defy this.

For time skips, you use objects that change over time. Baby grows up, trees change, seasons change. Use objects tied to time.

Basically, what you're asking for is story theory and there is a ton of story theory out there as tools for you, but I think it would benefit you greatly to get out of the US/UK mindsets and go exploring into the greater usually non-English part of the world. Out there, beyond the English-bound borders you can find toolsets for making a long slow scene oddly interesting. How to make something oddly satisfying. How to make a twist worth a person's time. When to cut the conflict to create greater emotionality. How to command tone until your writhing because they did it so well. How to cut away all setting so it no longer matters. How to make thematic development sing under your fingers. How to play with structure so you're not married to a bunch of white men who mostly created it to hate on women (yes, I have the references for that).

Explore and expand your toolbox, and you definitely can pace out your event structure by learning like how Honey and Clover managed to make you warm and fluffy and that ending gets you. How to make a conflictless, problemless event structure. How slice of life really works.

Read/consume stories not only to enjoy the book, but to also ask, "How did they pull that off?"