So I’m trying to write a story set in the 1980s about a young Hmong couple. The wife struggles with vaginismus and seeks help from the white Mormon elder who sponsored her family’s move to the U.S. Her husband is a Shamanist, and a big part of the story is the emotional/sexual/cultural tension between all three characters.
My problem is that I keep getting too deep into backstory and details, and the pacing slows to a crawl. I’ve also tried writing from multiple POVs, but that somehow made it even more bloated.
I tried using ChatGPT to help move scenes along, but it tends to skip over the emotional/sexual tension I actually want to explore, especially the wife coming to terms with her condition, the awkward intimacy of her husband being her first, and the complicated dynamic of the Elder helping them sexually reconnect and finally consummate the marriage. Instead, the AI rushes straight to the resolution and loses the slow emotional buildup I’m aiming for.
Does anyone have advice on:
My problem is that I keep getting too deep into backstory and details, and the pacing slows to a crawl. I’ve also tried writing from multiple POVs, but that somehow made it even more bloated.
I tried using ChatGPT to help move scenes along, but it tends to skip over the emotional/sexual tension I actually want to explore, especially the wife coming to terms with her condition, the awkward intimacy of her husband being her first, and the complicated dynamic of the Elder helping them sexually reconnect and finally consummate the marriage. Instead, the AI rushes straight to the resolution and loses the slow emotional buildup I’m aiming for.
Does anyone have advice on:
- balancing backstory with forward momentum,
- writing “slow burn” tension without dragging the pacing,
- or structuring emotionally/sexually intimate scenes so they don’t feel repetitive?
