Why Some Chapters Don't Work

I had a really good week writing-wise, if you look at overall word count. I knocked out 3000+ words on Monday, and hoping to capitalize on the momentum, I took off two more days to write. Wednesday netted me another 2000+ words while Thursday was a bust at around 500 (this was partially due to coming down with a head cold).

However, the chapter I wrote on Wednesday will be scrapped because it fails as a chapter.

It started off well with plenty of conflict and character uncertainty. Unfortunately, it slid into a "Well you know, Bob" dialog that sucked every bit of tension out of the room. I needed them to have the conversation to set up the last big climactic confrontation in the last two chapters. So, their conversation was aimed at that. Somewhere, I lost the momentum to make it engaging.

So, I'm scrapping the chapter, moving a couple of pieces of information to the previous chapter, and completely revising the scene. Now instead of a conversation from a hideout, Nashlin sneaks out to follow her new idol, so they must sneak about a bit in the city. They now spy someone suspicious, which will naturally bring up the plot points I forced in the original draft. A red shirt will be sent to follow the suspicious guy and end up dead in the canal. His wounds will point to what exactly the suspicious guy is and what awaits them in the climax.

A much better way to spend a chapter.

Of course, this can all be boiled down to "Show, don't tell," but it's more than that. I constructed the previous version around a conversation that was only there to set-up. There should be conflict on every page, instead I tried the easy way out, which just makes for more work during the re-write.