Whenever I write short stories, I always get stuck in "moving" my characters along. Or, I'm just bad at splicing up the scenes. For instance, after character A and B have a conversation, I want to move A to the train station. However, I feel compelled to detail "A hailed a taxi.. A paid for a ticket... A waited on the platform for X minutes", which overall doesn't add anything meaningful to the story and slows down the plot tempo. Is this just a practice/experience thing?
Happens sometimes to me as well, it's practice to know when you are not really giving important information. For me however it helps me to keep the order of actions in my head.
Using your example: A and B finish talking, then you describe the taxi, the ticket and him waiting at the platform. For the reader point of view it is the same information than:
A and B finish talking. Next scene begins with "A had been waiting for 10 minutes for the train to arrive"
For me it's sometimes a correction part, deleting scenes where nothing really happens, however when I write is kind of good to know for me what happened between the scenes even if the reader doesn't get the full description, it helps me keep the momentum going, but then in the correction phase it gets deleted; the reader doesn't need to have a description for everything, but I kind of do, lol.
So my advise would be write it anyway and then cut pieces off.
Oooh! This is a great idea actually, doing the cutting in post. Will give this a shot + maybe abbr. the in between context when I first write.
No need to “move” the character. Just drop them into the next situation.
You can do it like a “Three Days Later” title card on SpongeBob. Even small children don’t have any difficulty with the curtain closing on one scene and opening on another.
If you let the readers know the when, where, and who of the new scene, they’re off to the races. The why and how are often too trivial or obvious to mention.
It doesn’t hurt if you know the untold parts, but oversharing isn’t caring.
Read short stories or novels that have been edited and published and that will give you an idea of the standard vs what you assume to be true. Why do you think just cutting to the next scene would be a problem? Even movies cut to scenes. Do you think the reader will be so disoriented that they'll just drop your story?
Yeah I think that's my fear. But yes, will continue to reference other good writing examples!
What helps for me is thinking about how (good) comic books and graphic novels do this. They obviously can’t detail every transition from scene to scene. In one panel, the character is stepping out of a taxi, looking up at a skyscraper. In the next panel, they’re pushing the button for the elevator, internally angsting about the upcoming confrontation with their boss.
The most important thing is keeping the energy and concepts moving forward, not maneuvering the characters through every step like they’re action figures.
The way I like it is to make it feel like a continuation of something. So at the end of the conversation, A says, “Alright, I have a train to catch,” then immediately jump to him at the station fighting his way to the platform.
Retart in the new location.
Let's say that the new location is about Andrew wanting to strike up a conversation with a female train conductor that he has a crush on.
"Don't forget to mail that package," said Joe.
Andrew waved vaguely as he walked away. "No problem."
Forty minutes later, Andrew occupied the seat that he judged most suitable for conversation with Janice...
Look at how others do it. Now that I've started writing, I read books differently, paying attention to structure, words etc rather than just diagonally scanning the page to get the story out of it.
You can "jump cut" between important scenes, summarise actions between important stuff, use log date/journal style where something happens one day, then the next, so on.