When you Listen

Feb 20

1 min read

Last night I submitted a ten-page bit to our writing critique group.

Got smacked.

Not mean smacking, but the reality that I missed the mark on communicating my thoughts, story, characters from my mind to the page.

I submitted the opening pages of Daniel book five.

Because it is a series, a continuation of previous books, I tried to weave some backstory in the give a reader some context of events before, and aspects of relationships.

What I discovered...I failed miserably, creating questions, confusion, causing the readers to miss the heart of the story.

So??? Back to the drawing board.

If one has read the four previous books, then the opening of book five makes sense, but if not...it just doesn't work.

Now, I have to decide, elaborate and expand, or cut to the chase and not try to make this work for those new to Daniel?

Writin' ain't all sunshine and roses.

Your thoughts. Leave a comment

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2 Comments

larry.langley149

Feb 20

Every story has to establish a context for the events to make sense. If a book is part of a series then there needs to be something for the reader to know what’s going on. It could be a prologue, or woven into the story, or something else, but the reader deserves to know what led to this situation.

W.R. Golding

Feb 23

Replying to

Thanks Larry. I thought about doing a prologue but decided not to go there. My books have a teaser at the front that does a recap of the adventure from beginning to the current point, but my personal experience is those get scanned more than read. I've tried to go blank, clear my prejudices, and rewrite something that paints a more complete and fluid picture.