If you're bored of a novel, it's because it lacks conflict.

I've come to find myself repeating one concept over and over. We talk about it every week at writing group. It comes up all the time on critiquing websites. I even have to tell myself from time to time. Based on the results, I'm starting to think this may be the secret ingredient:

When writers are bored of their own stories, it's almost always due to a lack of conflict or tension.

There may be some. In fact, there's usually some. But in brainstorming, and editing, and critiquing, and discussing, problem-solving always comes back to this. There needs to be enough to propel a whole scene.

What really doesn't work, I've found, is "this scene has to be there so we understand x." There lies the path to characters going through the motions. Dialogue that informs us of something, but has no oomph; scenes that are pretty and realistic, but seem to drag; low-level tension that lacks the sizzle you expect. I'll bet you've read scenes like that, and felt bored for some nebulous reason.

I find that the issue lies at the core of the scene. It's a foundational problem that can't be fixed by adjusting lines, or even paragraphs. This is usually how I end up gutting entire chapters. For example, I had a scene where several characters sit together and talk about secrets they'd learned. It was "necessary," and read smoothly, but always felt weak. In the latest revision, I needed to add some unrelated elements (a new character and more display of people's sci-fi powers), which made me decide to toss the whole sequence and change the setting. Now, the main character interrupts a tense conversation, gets himself in trouble, and embarrasses his boss. When she angrily reams him out, she sideways mentions much of what I had in the old version of the scene. It's much better now. Same info, but less "rote," more tense.

This brilliant blog post discusses the importance of word economy in flash fiction. It makes the point that flash requires an author to distill everything into tight, concentrated bites. Conflict is described as...

In a nutshell, conflict is the impetus for action. It is the thing that causes your main character to want to do something to change what's wrong with his world (resolution).

When it comes down to it, this is how I end up bored reading books: characters don't want to do things enough. They may have long-term desires, but they don't have any idea how to get there. They may hate their situation, but they take little action. They wander into plot events, observe things by happenstance, and don't feel strongly about changing their life. In the formula, "what does the character want, and why can't they have it?" it's not the wanting that makes us turn pages--it's the obstacles.

Next time you feel like throwing a scene across the room, let me know if it's because of weak conflict, or another reason. So far, ratcheting up the stakes, weaving in more conflicts, and pushing on tension points has been my most surefire method for fixing bland scenes.