Thursday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

9 REASONS YOUR READER IS BORED

By: Ingrid Sundberg

Don’t give your reader an excuse to put your book down! Make sure your book looks more appetizing than a cheese sandwich by avoiding these nine pitfalls.

1) Leisurely Descriptive Passages

Ever read a book where the author spends multiple pages describing a house? Or maybe it’s a spaceship, or the way the light plays upon the windows of a city. Snooze fest!

Of course we need settings so the action doesn’t happen in a vacuum, but we no longer live in a time without photographs or television. Back in the day when we’d never seenan elephant before it was great to spend a whole page describing the lumbering and exotic animal. But you don’t have to describe everything in extensive detail anymore.

2) Leisurely Passages of Back Story and Flashback

One of the easiest ways to get your reader to tune out is with an extensive passage of back story. As authors we need to know all the back story, and we spend countless hours creating it. And because we’ve put in so much time creating the back story it’s tempting to want to shareall of it with our readers. But that’s like forcing your reader to look through all 1000 photos from your vacation. They’re going to tune out pretty quickly.  Back stories can help us relate to characters, and many details are necessary, but keep them in shorter passages.

3) Scenes Where the Plot is Not Moving Forward

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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 Do You Handle Negativity from Others? | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/HiMfS
2. Author Press Release: Get it Right! - Where Writers Win http://ow.ly/HiMpU
3. 3 Simple and Efficient eBook Marketing Tips Every Author Should Know | Self-Publishing Review http://ow.ly/HiNBP
4. Kidlit · Conscious vs. Unconscious Action http://ow.ly/HiNJt
5. Seriously Write: How Hobbits Learn to Market Their Stories by Lori Roeleveld http://ow.ly/HiP8e
6. Writability: How to Write a Great Twitter Pitch http://ow.ly/HiQ3Z
7. ThrillWriting: Can Your Character Survive Multiple Attackers? Info for Writers w/ Terror Expert Rock Higgins http://ow.ly/HiQaM
8. Alexandra Sokoloff: Rewriting: Something has to happen http://ow.ly/HiQhH
9. Character Development Checklist - 13 Points To Consider - Writers Write http://ow.ly/HjCV4
10. How to be a Better Writer: Talk about Your Projects http://ow.ly/HjHzL
11. The Agony of Early Drafts - Should YOU Keep Writing? (Good Question) | Positive Writer http://ow.ly/HjPSG
12. Mythcreants » Five Secondary Characters Who Deserve Their Own Stories http://ow.ly/HjQb0
13. 15 Ways You Can Beat The Content Marketing Odds - Heidi Cohen http://ow.ly/HjQHe
14. Fiction University: Working With Multiple POVs and Timelines http://ow.ly/HjRHj
15. Authors: Plan Your Marketing with a Content Calendar by Frances Caballo — The Book Designer http://ow.ly/HjS6z
16. Ellis Shuman Writes: The Secret to Being a Productive Writer http://ow.ly/HjSGS
17. 2 enduring, low-cost book marketing tactics | @Belinda_Pollard http://ow.ly/HjTWZ
18. 3 Simple Things You Can Do Today To Improve Your Blog http://ow.ly/HjUNm
19. Writer Unboxed » The Art of the Comp http://ow.ly/HjVaA  There’s an art to coming up with the right comparison to pique interest.
20. Author, Jody Hedlund: 6 Ways to Make Characters Stand Out in a Crowd http://ow.ly/HjVPj
21. BookMarketingBuzzBlog: The Media’s 9 Favorite Subjects: Pay Attention, Authors http://ow.ly/HjWIT
22. Habits Of A Book Junkie In A Digital World | The Creative Penn http://ow.ly/HjY2M
23. 9 Reasons Your Reader is Bored | Ingrid's Notes http://ow.ly/Hk00b

Happy writing and running, Kathy