My protagonist just hit 100,000 words and I'm pretty sure 80,000 of them are just him thinking about soup

I was doing a word count on my fantasy novel draft and the number genuinely shocked me, because the plot has barely moved forward since chapter three. My main guy is supposed to be on a quest for a magical gem, but he keeps stopping at taverns to internally monologue about the quality of the stew. Has anyone else written themselves into a corner this deliciously pointless?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim37320d ago

Realize you might have accidentally written a fantasy novel about a food critic. Your guy isn't on a quest for a gem, he's searching for the perfect bowl of soup and the gem is just a MacGuffin he heard about at a pub. Lean into it. Make the final boss a corrupt chef with a bland bisque. The magic gem is just a really good stock pot.

faithwalker20d ago

Totally get that, had a similar thing happen with a detective story that was just about finding a good bagel. The villain was a guy who kept toasting them wrong.

davis.noah11d ago

Read a blog post about this exact thing, like @faithwalker's bagel guy but with chowder. Sounds like your soup critic found his real plot.