Monday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

THE GAP IN YOUR NARRATIVE, THE SCENE YOU’RE AVOIDING—STOP AND BRAINSTORM

By: Roz Morris

I was editing a manuscript recently and came across a number of scenes that were summarised instead of shown in detail. In some cases this was a good call, but others made me wonder.

Why? Because they looked like they had the potential to be significant.

I’m not going to tell you the true details, of course, so this is a paraphrase. Broadly speaking, the characters have formed a new business venture. If it succeeds, it gives the narrator a new start in life. Also there’s a romance that will be threatened, because the girlfriend wants to settle somewhere else. The business makes this more tricky. Yet the writer summarised this period of preparation and change.

It’s fair enough to fast forward if there was nothing interesting to show. But during those hours, the characters are playing unfamiliar roles, and getting closer to their hopes and dreams. Relationships will change because of the responsibilities. Tensions will be growing. I said to my client: are you sure there is nothing interesting in these scenes? Do you really want to leave them out? To me, they’re gaps in the narrative.

Mea culpa . . .

Read the full article HERE!

~*~

If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. Writing Questions Answered http://ow.ly/DlCW2 Character Development: Separating Characters from Yourself and Other Characters
2. The gap in your narrative, the scene you’re avoiding – stop and brainstorm! | Nail Your Novel http://ow.ly/DlD6k
3. Black Gate » Blog Archive » Self-Publishing Checklist: The Random No One Tells You, Part III http://ow.ly/DlDFJ
4. Murder by 4: How to Catch Those Pesky Typos - Aaron Lazar http://ow.ly/DlETN
5. Reference For Writers: References for writing comic noir or neo-noir/noir fiction http://ow.ly/DlFqx
6. Fiction University: NaNoWriMo Prep: Planning Your Novel’s Beginning http://ow.ly/DlFv9
7. Writing Faster... and keeping it okay — Jennifer Ellis - Writing http://ow.ly/DlFAI
8. Creating an ePub file Using Scrivener + Dreamweaver + Sigil + Kindle Previewer | Angela Quarles http://ow.ly/DlFRW
9. From manuscript to self-published book – what does it take? | Heather Wardell http://ow.ly/DlFYm
10. 27 Ways To Find More Blog Content Ideas! | Book Promotion Hub http://ow.ly/DlG2Y
11. 35 Book Marketing Ideas That Will You Sell MORE Books | Book Promotion Hub http://ow.ly/DlGhm
12. More Places for Social Media Marketing - BookWorks | BookWorks http://ow.ly/DlGmW
13. How to Create a Basic Ebook in 10 Steps http://ow.ly/DlGpw
14. So You Want To Be A Successful Writer… ~ Oh, My… | Notes from An Alien http://ow.ly/DlGr1
15. Listen Up: Converting My Book to Audio | Richard Levesque http://ow.ly/DlGtl
16. Indie Authors Lost In The Haystack? - BookWorks | BookWorks http://ow.ly/DlGvI
17. Top 5 Ways Authors Sabotage Their Own Book by Shayla Eaton — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/DlGz1
18. Ask Jami: Whose Point of View Should We Use? | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/DlGIy
19. A Social Media Etiquette Guide You Might Find Useful : @ProBlogger http://ow.ly/DlGLP

Happy writing and running, Kathy