Day 14
Total word count: 8,477 (including deletions) I had a kind of epiphany this weekend – bad pun since it was Easter weekend – but it was the other kind of epiphany, the “EUREKA” kind. I’m reading Chris Roerden’s book, Don’t Murder your Mystery . I’ve picked it up several times before, reading bits and pieces, but never cover to cover. This time I’m really reading it, word by word, digesting the advice, seeing how I can apply the Find &Fix Clues at the end of each chapter to my own writing. My “eureka” (the first of many, I"m sure) came when I read what she had to say about descriptive passages, using an economy of words to describe people and places, and, most of all, avoiding information dumps. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa. I looked at my first MS and (I’m blushing, here) I am guilty of dump after dump. I was particularly taken with Roerden’s idea of “timed release,” of selecting one key feature or attribute for the character’s first action, and saving...