A Hush in Your Plot

Unless you’re working on novelizations of the John Wick movies, at some point, you’ll need to write a transition chapter. As tendons bind muscles and cartilage bone, these chapters are the connective tissue between scenes. More specifically, scenes of action in whatever form that takes in your story. Whether it’s sex, confrontation, fist fight, space battle, or murder, there should be a down beat before and after.

That calm is a natural thing. Music without rests between notes would be noise, as is constant speech without a breath. The quiet moments give more power to the loud ones, making them stand out.

The same goes for writing. If you want that epic moment in your work to land as hard with your audience as it did for you, you’ll need to hush the room. That’s where the transition chapter comes in. I’ve heard them called scene sequels, which is a good way to look at it. Another is reaction. You need to give your reader time to process whatever just happened in the story, and the best way to go about it is to have your characters do it with them.

A Eulogy for the Days of Unnecessary Plot Lines

One thing I used to hate about network television was that every show had filler episodes. Those were the ones that had nothing to do with the overall plot of a season, especially in any “_____ of the week” shows (monster, murder, criminal). Instead of the shadow group working within the FBI, Mulder and Scully would investigate lizard people in the sewer. Detective Somebody took a break from chasing a serial killer to stop a jewelry heist.

In hindsight, maybe they weren’t so bad. In fact, the first example above is probably misremembered and I didn’t even hide the fact I made up the second. Those filler episodes helped raise the stakes for the meatier ones, showing the characters through a different lens to humanize them. They built up relationships so any threat would seem more diabolical.

Filler episodes also physically moved characters into position for more important plot lines. In fantasy franchises such as Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, both in the books and their various series, full-length novels were built on characters walking. For Game of Thrones specifically, the TV adaptation (in my opinion) started losing its way when it dropped those scenes of characters simply getting from one place to another, building and severing relationships along the way. Without them, the characters became generic and wooden, even cliché, and that was after seasons of getting to know them as anything but that.

And Another for the Show That Helped Kill Them

One of my favorite shows of all time is Carnivale, which I’ve often (wrongly so) given credit for shortening the average television season to 13 episodes. While HBO was still the driving force behind it, they’d already employed those shorter story arcs with Sex and the City and the Sopranos. The plot went like this: a mysterious young man joins a Dust Bowl Era carnival, traveling from town to town while unlocking the secrets of his family tree and a generational battle between good and evil.

If story mythology and lore are your thing, I’d be hard-pressed to name one better. I’m also not sure a show cancellation has stung me as hard since, though Hannibal came close. Despite the advanced knowledge that you’ll likely be frustrated by an unresolved story, I recommend watching it, especially if you’re a writer interested in storycraft. Because one thing this show nailed was how to use those sequel/reaction beats effectively.

It’s inherent to the premise. A traveling carnival is always moving, stopping in different towns along the way. This allows minor characters to pop in and out of the story along with minor plotlines. Not every scene is critical to the overarching plot—some entire episodes didn’t even nudge the needle forward—but they all did the job they were given. In my opinion, they did them well.  

Building the Calm Before the Storm

But what does “well” mean? How do you make the best use of your downbeats to keep your story from spinning its wheels? Personally, I make sure it advances the plot in at least one meaningful way. A character confessing the secret no one else but the reader knows. An important decision that defines the trajectory (love that word) for the rest of the story. Flashbacks.

In other words, down beat chapters don’t need to be and shouldn’t be uneventful. Their job is just as important as the action beats that sandwich them. Your job is to make them that way. As an added bonus, making some aspect of those transitions critical to your story makes them more exciting to write. Your words echo your feelings. If you’re bored writing a scene, your readers will likely be bored reading it.

So find something to love as you quiet the story, something special to share with your audience about the characters or the world around them. Make them feel the emotional weight of the next action beat, building it with every rest along the way to the coming climax.