There are various way a scene or conversation in your novel can advance the plot–because every scene should advance the plot in some way (prologues maybe excepted, as they take place before the plot begins and set it up).

No scene is going to, or needs to, do all of the things I’m going to list below. If you have a scene that doesn’t do any of them, however, it’s probably time to toss it (or at least rework it, or incorporate it into another scene).

• It reveals information that characters didn’t know before and need to know for the story to take place
• It introduces characters instrumental to the plot
• It makes characters rethink something they thought they understood (regarding the events or other characters of the story)
• It shows a new side to a character, a side that will become relevant later on
• It creates difficulties for what the characters are trying to accomplish
• It resolves a difficulty the characters have been facing
• Decisions are made, or courage is found, regarding how to act so as to resolve the plot
• Reltionships between characters are tested, broken, weakened, or strengthened in a way that affects the plot
• Characters suffer a setback or an advancement toward their goals relative to the plot
• A Macguffin is revealed, sought, lost, found, or exchanges hands

Of course, your characters also need to do things like make mistakes, learn lessons, question themselves, grow and develop . . . but these things should take place in light of the plot advancing, simultaneously with the plot advancing.

When a scene develops character, say, but doesn’t advance the plot, that’s when you’re seriously setting yourself up for pacing issues. There are other ways to create pacing issues, of course, but that’s a definite pacing issue, for sure.

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