Emotional Impact Over Main Plot?

[JT Woody]

I have a super long chapter. It serves 2 purposes:

• character development (deepens the bond between the 3 characters and makes the emotional impact if something happens to either of them that much stronger),
• plants suspicions about a 4th character not present in this chapter

HOWEVER... the chapter does not progress the over all plot. In fact, the chapter has its own plot entirely (which the conflict of it gets resolves at the end of the chapter). Call it a side quest for the 3 characters. or... call it a short break from the main plot...
The only thing readers would miss if i cut this chapter is how the 3 characters bonded with each other, and why the characters accuse a 4th character of something in a later chapter (an accusation that turns out to be true and comes up AGAIN toward the end of the book).

it is 26 pages and 7k words. I have no idea how to trim it (i trimmed like 600 words from it), and have been debating whether or not to cut it entirely. But... like i said, the character development and bonding is something i think is important.
I watched Black Phone a few weekends ago and one of my biggest pet peeve is how it didnt make me feel anything for the characters, so that when the time came for the characters to help the MC, i didnt feel anything. no excitement, no awe, no sense of recognition. Nothing that made me want to root for anyone.

I dont want that for my characters...


I guess im just looking for thought?

 

[Trish]

Without reading it, it's really hard to have an opinion that matters, but how long are your average chapters? Is the accusation part of the main plot later on?

Character development would come first for me, though ideally a balance between characters and plot is what I'm aiming for, but that doesn't mean it should come first for you.

 

[JT Woody]

but how long are your average chapters?

Between 5 and 10 pages.

Is the accusation part of the main plot later on?

Yes; the characters distance themselves from the 4th character, which adds to her eventual mental and murderous breakdown which ultimately unleashes her on the MCs.

 

[Trish]

Between 5 and 10 pages.


Yes; the characters distance themselves from the 4th character, which adds to her eventual mental and murderous breakdown which ultimately unleashes her on the MCs.

So it is moving the plot forward, just not in an obvious way? Can it be split into 2 chapters?

 

[Stuart Dren]

Yeah it sounds like it is germane, even if not obviously.

If it has its own plot, it has its own minor stakes and themes. Do those at least loosely fit the main train? If we're off to save our brother from an evil wizard, spending the next 7k words trying to win a garland in a tourney is going to murder the pacing.

I'm writing a detour in my WIP currently (a real knife's edge of pacing that could make the reader flee: capture). Its themes are tight for both the now and serve to foreshadow the final conclusion. It's got a small mystery and the stakes also align with the rest of the tale; in other words I'm being careful to make sure it belongs.