What's the weakness in my story crafting? I have several but I believe they are all linked to a failure of my brain to communicate.
Notice how neatly I sidestepped the blame? The storyteller in me has it right every time, but the analytical part of my brain starts dissecting the story and splicing in information at inappropriate places which can bog down pacing.
I have been frustrated by this in the past and I never understood what the exact problem was. I usually kept reworking a scene until it "felt" right. By this, I mean the cadence of words and the sequence of action harmonized.
However, with the wisdom of hindsight, and a brand new editor, I see that the root cause is getting scene and sequel mixed up. If you get scene and sequel right, all the other stuff falls into place. Here's the link she sent me: http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/scene.php. It has great insight into this basic technique. Basically, break your story scenes down into these 6 components: goal, conflict, disaster, reaction, dilemma, and decision. If you keep things in this order, the story flows.
Best of all, there aren't endless hours of revision.
Keep on writing!
Maggie Toussaint
SEEING RED coming soon from Freya's Bower
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