Have you ever heard the phrase "Cut to the chase"? This phrase is often cited to have first appeared in Joseph Patrick McEvoy's 1929 novel Hollywood Girl. The idea is quite simple but worth understanding, get rid of the preamble and "cut to the chase" scene. So what does this mean for the aspiring author? Raise your hand if you have a scene in your novel that is similar to this:

It was just past 4 PM, and Becky was pacing in the living room, "Gosh, I just can't remember when the party is was it 5, or 6?" She sighed nervously, "I can't be an hour early; that would be social suicide. But if I'm late..." She drifted off.

Finally, she crossed the living room to pick up the phone, fingers trembling slightly as she dialled. The Phone rang several times, finally picking up.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Suzy, it's Becky!"
"I'm good, thanks, how are you?"
"Great, so I wanted to ask about the party tomorrow."
"6 pm? Great!"
"Yes, of course I'll be there."
"See you soon!"
"Bye,"

She put down the receiver and let out a relieved sigh...

End of scene.

I don't know about you, but that was a lot of copy for a conversation, and we've totally buried the point. Authors often add this preamble because it's what they do in real life, and they want to make their book realistic. The trouble is, you are spending a lot of time and asking your reader for a lot of attention to get to the point.

Now, what if I took the same conversation and broke it down to just its core components

It was just past 4 PM, and Becky was pacing in the living room, "Gosh, I just can't remember when the party is was it 5, or 6?" She sighed nervously, "I can't be an hour early; that would be social suicide. But if I'm late..." She drifted off.

Finally, she crossed the living room to pick up the phone, fingers trembling slightly as she dialled. The Phone rang several times, finally picking up.

"Hey, I wanted to ask about the party tomorrow."
"6 PM, great!"

She put down the receiver and let out a relieved sigh...

Hear the difference? The conversation happened in 2 lines of dialogue, and yet the scene didn't feel strange for it! Author Jim Thayer describes this idea as B-C plotting, where you are removing the preamble (A) and postamble (D) and cutting straight to the chase of the scene B to C.

Here is another example that you might see during a family dinner.

Tom withdrew two bowls from the cupboard and ladled a helping of chilli into each bowl. He was famous for his chilli, and his daughter always loved it when he made it. He carefully scooped up both bowls and took them to the table before calling up the stairs,

"Jamie! Dinner's ready!"

"Coming!" came the reply, and heavy footsteps followed.

Tom got himself settled at the table and waited as Jamie entered the room.

"I made chilli!" he said,

"MMM! My favourite," Jamie said, and pulled out her chair before jumping in her seat and digging in.

Tom smiled before exhaling sharply, "So, I heard there was a situation at school?" Tom said.

Jamie swallowed and looked up from her bowl, "Situation?"

Tom looked her sternly, "The principal called, you got into a fight? This is the second time this month."

...

We spend a good deal of time watching Tom as he sets the table, find out that chilli is something he's famous for and that it's something his daughter loves potentially setting us up for chekhov's gun if we don't use this information later. Then finally, we get to the crux of the scene, the fight at school.

How might this scene look if we cut to the chase?

Tom set two steaming bowls of chilli down at the table and sighed heavily before calling up the stairs, "Jamie! Dinner!"

"Coming!" came the reply, and heavy footsteps followed.

Tom sat down at the table and laced his fingers in front of him, elbows on the table as he watched her enter the room.

"MMM chilli my..." Jamie stopped short when she caught sight of him

"Have a seat," Tom said, and she hesitantly slid into a chair.

"So, I heard there was a situation at school?" Tom said.

Jamie swallowed and looked up from her bowl, "Situation?"

Tom looked her sternly, "The principal called, you got into a fight? This is the second time this month."

...

Again see the difference? We've cut the preamble down significantly and replaced it with cues that signal the situation is tense before cutting straight to the point. No more Chekhov's gun, no more waiting for the point.

So how do we find these cases in our manuscript? Read through your novel, paying close attention to each time you start and end a new scene, are you beginning the scene with action, or are you spending time on formalities? If you are, trim them out. Sometimes it's as easy as just deleting the dialogue entirely, as we saw in the scene with Becky. Other times we can really polish our story by changing where we start the scene and focusing on setting up the conflict.

The goal is to be intentional with our scenes, don't add preamble and don't try to make your scene do more than it needs to. And remember, the difference between a dreamer and a writer is the stroke of a pen or the tap of the keys.