Mark Valley. Ispiration for Dane Holcroft, ex-Navy man and lawyerWe all know that the more white space, the faster the book reads. In an effort to keep a grip on my pacing and be able to keep track of my story flow, I've started bolding the dialogue. I've done this now for the last 3 rewrites/edits and it seems to work pretty darned well.
I'm not a huge fan of giant chunks of a book being inner dialogue. Or long passages of descriptive narrative. When I read, I tend to skim most of these because if the author has to spend pages and pages telling me what their character's thinking, then they're not doing a very good job of showing me what's going on, now, are they?
Same thing with descriptive narrative. Unless it somehow pertains to the action, I don't really care that much about the setting. A house is a house, unless it helps you with character development.
That being said, often setting is very important in my books. Some of the reason why I describe my character's surroundings is because I was once told I was terrible at it. Any time I get told I don't do something well, I go out of my way to correct that. Another reason is that where a person lives or how they decorate their home can offer clues to their personality.
So, do you have any technique you use as you write to help keep the story flowing or editing tricks that make the work easier?
Today's goal: Finish adding the word count needed to TOM contest
Yesterday's achievement: Added 2000 words to The Baby Bargain
What I'm grateful for: I drove home from work with the windows down yesterday
Quote: "Play: Work that you enjoy doing for nothing." -Evan Esar (1899 - 1995), Esar's Comic Dictionary
