One reader's hedge take made me rethink pacing entirely

In my thriller book club in Denver, someone said the middle chapters feel like a treadmill when the author repeats the same doubt beat three times. I argued that built tension, but then I re-read the section and yeah, it was just spinning wheels. Has anyone else found that cutting a single repetitive scene changes the whole feel of a novel?

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paul_owens251d ago

Same thing happened with my last manuscript. I had this whole subplot where the detective kept doubting whether the victim's husband was lying, and I had him circle back to the same evidence like three times. First read through, I thought it was building suspense. Second read, I realized the reader already knew the husband was hiding something, so it just felt like the book was stuck in mud. Cut one entire scene where he re-interviews the neighbor for the third time, and suddenly the next chapter hit way harder because we got to the new info faster. Sometimes less really is more, even if it hurts to delete stuff you liked writing.