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I was lucky enough to attend the New England Chapter RWA conference this weekend. Let Your Imagination Take Flight: Come to the edge.

Caroline Linden and Terri Brisbin looked at different aspects of writing the historical. I’d like to share a point they both made: info dumps put your reader to sleep. You’re right, this isn’t earth shattering news. Still, a reminder never hurts. (more…)

“I tend to skip over big chunks of narrative when I’m reading a novel.”
“Not me–I love detailed descriptions of scenery.”
“Hmm. I don’t get that. Hearing details just puts me to sleep.”
“Funny. What puts me to sleep is talking heads.”

What’s wrong with this picture? (more…)

Reading may be a sedentary activity, but your protagonist must be an action hero. This does not mean your characters must spend the book in constant motion, shooting, fighting and chasing. It does mean that action is crucial to your story.

Some scenes will be mostly dialog. Without action flowing smoothly through the conversation, you end up with talking heads. And those floating heads take the realism out of the story.

No reality = lost readers.

Other scenes may focus on internal monologue as your heroine thinks through her options for reaching her goal. Picture your readers snoozing or skimming this scene if you fail to include some action along with all that emotional angst.

Finally, you have true action scenes where the focus is on the chase, the battle, the lovemaking, the prowling of the cat burglar. Almost every novel will have some action scenes. At last, you may think. Here is a scene I can just write without having to worry that I’ll bore my readers. Action scenes are exciting–right? (more…)