Everyone who's read Worm and Wormfic has had more than their share of interludes, tiny chapters that cut to other characters reacting to whatever wacky stunt the main character's pulled now. Or, even worse, PHO interludes, where the writer roleplays an entire forum.

This is less of a thing in other fandoms for whatever reason, but still, the question remains: can interludes be done well? If so, how does an interlude qualify as good?

 

Like everything else in writing, interludes are good when they contribute to the greater work, and bad when they don't. Essentially, interludes are tools for a) world building, and b) revealing information to the reader that the protagonist doesn't know. Both of these are potentially useful tools, but they can also ruin the story if employed poorly.

At the end of the day, you'll generally want to use interludes only if there's critical plot information, typically things going on in the background to the wider plot, that you want the reader to know ahead of time. Or put another way, if you have a cliffhanger or plot twist you want to spoil ahead of time for whatever reason, you use an interlude. Otherwise, you should stick to the protagonist and just tell the story.

 

I haven't read Worm, but outside of fanfiction I have only encountered this in the novel in Library here Unsong. Sometimes they can be interesting, but as Zombie points out, I think they often work mostly as diversions. I usually like to read novels that have only one POV as well, so when chapters change POVs (e.g. in Wheel of Time I think this happens?), I also think that kills immersion because I am more invested in the primary plot.

But I suppose both interludes and chapters that change POV can help convey more information and work to slow down the tempo of the plot to make readers anticipate the next installment or chapter even more.

Initially I was thinking of using interludes in my fic that depicted the Mirror of Erised at different points in time (Roman invention, Flamel rediscovering it, Victorian gilding, Dumbledore's extra enchantments) as a kind of "history of object" idea, but I think that would be only interesting to me and not helpful for overall plot, so I don't plan to use them after all.

 

Interludes in Stormlight are what prevent me from calling Brandon Sanderson a good writer. I can see a case for interludes relevant to the story, but interludes that literally break up the story ought to be excised and forgotten---or, if you really love them, compiled into an anthology, but excised from the larger work nonetheless.

 

Interludes are good if they're something you actively desire as a reader beforehand. An interlude for an antagonist that has appeared in the story many times and you as a reader are itching to get firsthand experience with, good. An interlude for a side character that serves as that character's introduction, bad.

 

Nah. I think you can make it work. Not that people often do, but they aren't inherently bad.