Every writer has their weakness, and as I mentioned yesterday, every writer gets edited. As I work through the edits on Bubba Goes National, I'm learning some things about my writing and my weaknesses. By fixing these areas, I'm learning how to avoid those mistakes in the future and make my writing that much better.
I am a goal-oriented person. As such, I tend to be direct and get right to the point. If I had my way, books would be about 40,000 words long. Why don't I just write short stories, you ask? I don't know...just don't wanna, I guess. Anyway, because I tend to be so cut-and-dry, my habit is to list off the events that are happening, and that's where most of my problems stem from.
The problem I'll focus on today is emotion. Every once in a while I'll have a character smile, laugh, or cry...but I tend to cut it short or even forget to talk about it. Something horrible happens to poor Leslie, and I skip right over how she feels about it! I guess in my mind it's implied...but that doesn't get the reader involved! I need to slow the story down a little and catch the reactions and emotional responses to make the reader cry and laugh right along with the characters. I feel like I'm getting a handle on it!
3 comments:
You most definitely are getting the hang of it! I can't want to read the final version, all printed and pretty and professional - WITH YOUR NAME ON THE COVER! whoohoo!
It's closer than you think it is...(nodding)
Keep editing!
Love and stuff,
Michy
Jennifer, this is my greatest stumbling block. I can show...generally. But, I tend to get caught up in the story and forget to explore emotions. I think it falls into that old, "I know it so it seems everyone else does too."
Nice page. I've added it to my blog roll :)
Flip
Thank you so much! I really appreciate that.
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