Slow and steady may win the race, but it’ll lose the reader’s attention and in that case who cares about the race?

Old french fairy tales 0077

“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.

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