“When you print out your manuscript and read it, marking up with a pen, it sometimes feels like a criminal returning to the scene of a crime.”
― Don Roff

It’s revision time. Oh, how do I love thee… not. Looking at the mechanics of the story.

• Not too much thinking. If the characters sit around thinking all the time, the reader will fall asleep after a page or two, if they haven’t tossed the book aside already.
• Not too much dialogue. Talking heads are disconnected from the senses and the emotions.
• Not too much narrative. Long descriptions of the scene… yawn.

It’s a balancing act trying to get the mixture right. I never feel as if I done it correctly, but maybe feeling like that is part of the process.

Joanna Bourne has an excellent post on balancing the elements of writing.