Pacing is key in stories. If your pacing is off, an editor, agent, or reader will get bored with your book. One key element in getting your pacing just right is narrative balance. Narrative balance is the ratio of dialogue to narration in a text. Page after page of narration bogs down the pacing and becomes boring for the reader. Conversely, extended scenes of just dialogue reads too quickly, and the reader gets lost. The appropriate balance between dialogue and … Read More »

I love a story with details. I think they have the power to bring a story to life, make it believable, and put the reader right where you want them — hooked, immersed, and with the feeling that they are actually there with your characters. But I would caution against meaningless detail. You want those you choose to be accurate/believable, and you want them to fulfill their purpose. You must choose carefully — if you’re lucky, they’ll provide layers of … Read More »

We often write best about the times and places we inhabit, filling our prose with the little details of our existences. To get there, we sometimes sprinkle the work with brand names. Stephen King does this to good effect, giving the work real-world flavor. His rationale—and it’s a good one—is that a person buys a Pepsi, not a soft drink. However, King runs the risk of readers a hundred years from now having no idea what he’s talking about when … Read More »

It’s a dark and stormy night. The electricity is off, so, TV-less, you and your Significant Other are in bed reading by clip-on battery lights. After a brief while, he/she slams down the book and says, “This book stinks. I’m going to bed.” S.O. turns off the light, pulls up the covers, and before long, you hear snoring. You, on the other hand, have hit a Golden One. You can’t put it down! You devour that book, losing track of … Read More »

What story is really worth writing? Worth spending your time, energy, and imagination on? I like what Susan Sontag says, “The only story that seems worth writing is a cry, a shot, a scream. A story should break the reader’s heart.” Whenever I read that—it’s on a slip of paper tacked on corkboard above my desk—what comes to mind is flash fiction. It’s bite-size insight. It’s sudden. It surprises. What’s Flash Fiction? Whatever you call a brief prose story, it … Read More »

Writing dialogue can feel as innate (or as awkward) as having an actual conversation. Conversations convey information, carry ideas, and connect people to each other. They are do the same in a written narrative. So what is the best way to use dialogue for your story? And where can you develop it? There are rules to using dialogue: use it to advance plot, reveal character, and avoid redundancy. But there are no rules with how you pace the dialogue inside … Read More »