Tangents?

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celticroots

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When working on your novel, how can you avoid going off on tangents/a tangent? I feel like I am kind of going on one on my current WIP even though the characters and scenes/situations serve a purpose as being a support for the MC or influence how she changes.
 

Neegh

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if they run along one of the themes of the novel--and do not slow down the reader's anticipation of what may happen next, then they are not tangents.

...though, better to keep them kinda short.

 

dondomat

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Stephen King can be up to 70% tangents in various books. Do it well, and it adds depth and believability.
 

Gringa

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I'm on a tangent roll in my WIP and eating it up. Go for it. You can always edit.
 

Brightdreamer

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First draft, you can't always tell. Leave it in.

In revisions, view everything with a critical eye. Is it really adding anything, or are you just so in love with your character's hobby of knitting asbestos socks for orphaned dragons that you completely forget your story's a medical thriller? Sometimes, a little sidetracking is good. It can establish character or create some needed down time. But if it goes on long enough that you (or your beta readers) start skimming, cut it back, or cut it out.

If you yourself are calling it a "tangent," though, that's not a great sign. It's like calling something an "infodump." They're terms that generally indicate something's gone wrong...
 

Katharine Tree

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Change in your main character counts as plot, so if your tangent is really fostering that, it isn't a tangent.

You might want to call it a loose end, instead. Loose ends are okay, as long as they are tied off before the big finale.
 

Mr Flibble

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Depends what you mean by tangents tbh


If your tangent is an MC reacting to Plot Event in an unexpected way.. roll with it -- how they (or other characters, including the antag) react is part of the plot

If tangent is walk on cameo decides he needs to tell his totally unrelated story or a sudden treatise on the mating of koi carp in a police procedural that does not feature koi carp mating habits as part of the plot... don't.

Check what the scene/section does -- it should do at least two of the following -- advance plot, build atmosphere (including any worldbuilding), develop character. If it is not doing at least two of those, you need to rethink.
 

thepicpic

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Depends what you mean by tangents tbh


If your tangent is an MC reacting to Plot Event in an unexpected way.. roll with it -- how they (or other characters, including the antag) react is part of the plot

If tangent is walk on cameo decides he needs to tell his totally unrelated story or a sudden treatise on the mating of koi carp in a police procedural that does not feature koi carp mating habits as part of the plot... don't.

Check what the scene/section does -- it should do at least two of the following -- advance plot, build atmosphere (including any worldbuilding), develop character. If it is not doing at least two of those, you need to rethink.

I have to ask: have there been many cases where the mating habits of koi carp is essential?

To answer the question... err, yeah. What they said.
 

WeaselFire

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When working on your novel, how can you avoid going off on tangents/a tangent?

Is it a tangent or is it the real story? Until you finish, you may not know.

Plotting a story is one way to cut tangents. You fill in the outline between major events and you don't have as much of a tendency to lose your path.

Jeff
 

Darron

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What sounds like a tangent now could be a important or interesting part of the novel later.
It sounds like you are a pantster, which is perfectly okay. You have a lot of friends here that do the same thing and it can take your novel places you didn't expect. Revisions and edits can come later. Just keep on writing!
 

shortstorymachinist

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As an analogy, I've heard when Peter Jackson had miniature cities made for the LotR movies, he had them sculpted perfectly in the round, even the back sections no one would ever see. It added to the reality of the story he was trying to tell, but just for the purpose of him getting into process.

So, when considering a scene in your WIP, decide if it's something that makes the story feel more real for you but no one should ever see (like the genealogy of the MC back eight generations) or if it's something that makes the story more real for the reader as well (like the genealogy of the MC back eight generations which displays how she's actually the long lost heir to the throne! Gasp!) It all depends on how directly it's related to the currently running plot.
 
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Maze Runner

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Sometimes I've been on a tangent and knew beyond doubt that it was more of an indulgence. I'd follow it for a while to be sure, but more often than not it would not lead anywhere that would add to character or take the story to a place it wanted to go organically. However, just as many times I've found it to do exactly one of those two things.
 

Jamesaritchie

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When working on your novel, how can you avoid going off on tangents/a tangent? I feel like I am kind of going on one on my current WIP even though the characters and scenes/situations serve a purpose as being a support for the MC or influence how she changes.

I'm a pure panster, and like Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, I never, ever plot, so I'm not sure there's a tangent for me to go off on. But what I do to keep the story on tract is pretty simple. I never, ever look ahead. I don't know, don't want to know, and don't care what will happen on the next page.

But i care deeply that the page I'm writing at the moment matches the story before it perfectly. Rather than looking ahead, I constantly look back. As long as the page I'm on at the moment matches the previous story I've written perfectly, it doesn't matter when it goes. Whatever direction it takes is automatically the right one because it's coherent story front to back.

You don't have to be a pure panster to do this you, you just have to worry about what has already happened, rather than the direction the story takes.
 

Samsonet

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I have to ask: have there been many cases where the mating habits of koi carp is essential?

Con man trying to sell a fake fish to a mark, only for the mark to know quite a bit on the subject and call them out?

Though if that's something to put in a police procedural or not, I wouldn't know...
 

JHFC

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First draft, go on every tangent you want. Then when you go back see where you can cut them down, if needed. I'm most proud of some of my tangents that became vital to the story later, but were never intended to be when I wrote them.
 

Jamesaritchie

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First draft, go on every tangent you want. Then when you go back see where you can cut them down, if needed. I'm most proud of some of my tangents that became vital to the story later, but were never intended to be when I wrote them.

Different ways of writing always amaze me. I don't do first drafts, I make the first pass my final draft. Even when I did used to do true first drafts, I never wanted the second draft to that much work.
 

JHFC

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Different ways of writing always amaze me. I don't do first drafts, I make the first pass my final draft. Even when I did used to do true first drafts, I never wanted the second draft to that much work.

Fair enough. I tend to just write write write, either filling in later if I run out of steam or trimming down where I went crazy. Three or four sets of edits seems to do it for me, but I have heard of people doing the editing thing as they go so their manuscript is done when it is done.

Now, I had to learn to do this. In college the first draft was the final draft and I edited as I went along. I just find it easier on such long manuscripts to properly edit them. Different strokes!
 

Myrealana

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When I'm first writing my rough draft, I don't worry about tangents. Some tangents have turned out to be key points I hadn't considered in my outline.

Some are complete trash.

I decide which are which in the editing process.
 

KTC

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I only write in tangents.
 

JHFC

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When you go off on a unrelated or partially related topic before coming back to your main point.

Like if I were telling you a story and paused the story to complain about something only vaguely related to the story for 5 minutes before finishing the story.
 

Once!

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There are good tangents and bad tangents. Good tangents are usually when the characters take time out of the plot to do something characterful.

Bad tangents are sometimes when the author takes time of the plot to play with himself. Or herself.

I don't mind wandering off the beaten path with you as long as you are going to show me something interesting.
 

Myrealana

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I've been reading the Hugo nominated classic "Cat's Cradle" this week.

The entire book seems composed completely of tangents.
 

IDGS

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Tangents in a way make up a lot of the interesting characterization in a lot of novels, I find.

If everything was just A to B to C without much in between, you'd have a very fast-paced novel that lacks much meat, in my humble opinion.

Leave them in when you write, and at the end if you feel they have nothing to contribute, remove 'em!
 
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