EXPOSITION, EXASPERATION AND ORGANIZATION

‘Too much exposition’ or put more simply, too much telling and not enough showing is something you are bound to hear at some point when you’re getting feedback on your work.

‘His eyes widened and his eyebrows lifted a fraction,' rather than ‘He was surprised.’

Why? Because you engage, and satisfy, your reader on a deeper level if you don’t spell everything out – and if they make the connections themselves.

            So on Monday I started Strand B with high expectations. My characters were stronger, the story line more clear but this has been a very slow week work wise. My first chapter started out fine, small points - sharpening sentences, enjoying the thesaurus but nothing major. Unfortunately, about half way through I realized I had moved from being in the story to telling the reader about the story. I’m going to have to rewrite this and replace all this telling with a lot more showing, I thought. And there at the end of the chapter was a note I’d made to myself at some earlier point when rereading - ‘The second half of this needs dialogue – it’s all exposition!’

I also needed do some more research and add more drama. It was slow going. Then, when I was about three quarters of the way through, I came across a later draft of the chapter, which although not complete, had addressed a fair amount of the issues. If only I’d found this earlier...

So, today, I’ve had two versions of the chapter up on the screen and am still working my way through amalgamating the best of these drafts into a final version. Last week I felt as if I’d reached the top of a mountain; this week I’m slogging my way, thigh deep, through swampy marshlands.

There’s no question of giving up, but it’s that ol' 99% perspiration stage. Thank God for that 1% inspiration – think how powerful that tiny percentage is because that is what motivates us through the other 99%! And I know that somewhere up ahead, there's a mountain up with a great view.

Today’s Haiku

ON THE BUS HOME

Dark Prussian blue sky,

Deepest umber earth below.

I sit unthinking.

Here are a couple of websites about writing whose advice helps me in my writing;

 http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com     http://www.Ingermanson.com

http://HollyLisle.com http://HowToThinkSideways.com

And if you haven’t read Stephen King’s book ‘On Writing’, I would suggest you do.

For all book lovers out there, I wish you good reading and for those of you who write, good writing.