Saturday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

GIVE ME A SIDE OF DESCRIPTION: HOLD THE CHUNKS

By: Write Divas

           

It’s tempting to over-describe, isn’t it? It’s a must to give your readers insight into your characters’ pasts and relationships with one another, the setting of your story, and to set up coming events. Isn’t it just easier to do it all in one big chunk? After all, that room your characters are standing in isn’t going to describe itself.

The problem with chunks of over-description is that it makes your story read like a lecture, checklist, or an infomercial. People hate infomercials for a reason, checklists belong on a chores list and lectures belong in the classroom, not your book. Remember that teacher in the Peanut’s cartoons? She would stand before the class and lecture and all of her words turned into “waahnt-wa-wah, wa-waaa…” Yes, this is what your lovingly crafted words become when you litter your manuscript with filler.

But before you spend paragraph after paragraph describing that room, you need to ask yourself three questions.

Is the description necessary/important to the scene or merely distracting filler?

. . .

Read the full article HERE!

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

1. How to Outline Your Novel With A Bulletin Board | Darla G. Denton http://ow.ly/IcMQZ
2. Serve me up a Side of Description; Hold the Chunks - Write Divas http://ow.ly/IcMVm
3. 4 Approaches for the First Chapter of Your NovelWritersDigest.com | WritersDigest.com http://ow.ly/IcN0u
4. Fiction University: Do You Have Too Much Dialog? http://ow.ly/IcNW5
5. The Kill Zone: Gag Orders, And Other Rules To Get The Most From Critique Groups http://ow.ly/IcO0h
6. The Secrets to Building a More Strategic, Valuable Blog - Amy Porterfield http://ow.ly/IcO5o
7. “Word of Email” Marketing to Explode Your Business | Irresistible Marketing http://ow.ly/IcOeu
8. Ksenia Anske Books/Blog/How I launch my books: I DON'T http://ow.ly/IcOBb
9. Kidlit · Characters Who Care http://ow.ly/IcOKm
10. Facebook’s Call to Action Button | Indies Unlimited http://ow.ly/IcOSR
11. C is for Costs Part 1 - Self Publishing Tips from A to Z - Author Zoo http://ow.ly/IcOZ6
12. Five Tips to Building an Email List | Book Marketing Services http://ow.ly/IcP7m
13. Why Chocolate Is Good For You AND Your Writing | Book Marketing Tools Blog http://ow.ly/IcPfG
14. The Romantic Sub-Plot - Six Uncommon Romantic Love Interests - Writers Write http://ow.ly/IcPtW
15. Do Lower Prices Lead to More Sales? - Copyblogger http://ow.ly/IcPFA
16. How to Get Our Thoughts onto the Page | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/IcPU1v
17. Regaining Confidence in a Project - Elizabeth Spann Craig http://ow.ly/IcQ3u
18. Fiction University: Red Ink In the Trenches: A Copyeditor’s Perspective http://ow.ly/IcQ7m
19. Grammar Girl : Less Versus Fewer :: Quick and Dirty Tips ™ http://ow.ly/IcQgq
20. How To Give Constructive Writing Criticism (That Actually Helps) | Positive Writer http://ow.ly/IcQpa
21. “Write Drunk, Edit Sober” Is Bad Advice http://ow.ly/IcQzt
22. The External Story vs. The Internal Story with Lori Wilde | Romance University http://ow.ly/IcQIm
23. 8 Reasons Your Submission Strategy Sucks (And What You Can Do About It) | The Review Review http://ow.ly/IcQOn
24. How Dreams and Habits Make You a Wildly Productive Writer http://ow.ly/IcQSR
25. Business Musings: Traditional Numbers | Kristine Kathryn Rusch http://ow.ly/IcQYl
26. Tax Tips for Writers Who Hate Math by Helen Sedwick — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/IcR4r
27. Book-Writing Productivity Hacks - Business Insider http://ow.ly/IcRk4

Happy writing and running, Kathy