While the pacing of the story is one concern, there is also the pacing of the writing. It isn’t the same sort of issue. In the story, we need to keep the reader’s attention, so the ebb and flow of action and the changes of perspective all add to the mix. In the writing, it’s […]
It seems that researching while writing is more than half the fun. Or so far, at least. Looking up archaic the usage of words, making sure that the facts are right in the context of the setting and desperately trying not to be distracted by some obscure tidbit of knowledge that suddenly drops in your […]
It’s interesting when you start to do some research for a story just how much incidental information you can pick up. For example, how far can you ride a horse in a day? Apparently a fit horse could travel anything up to one hundred miles in a day, provided that it could be rested for […]
The current work, Dark Roads, is set in the medieval period, 1201 to be precise. How people spoke then was effectively a completely different language to what is spoken now, so much so that we would not understand someone from those times, nor they us. Given that, how do we write dialogue that sounds sufficiently […]
Not sure how the pacing of the current work will pan out. It seems at the moment that the faster action always involves the Female Main Character, Eleanor, while the slow passages revolve around the Male, de Quincey (Mathew to his friends). Occasionally straying into the world of the bad guys, helps break up the […]
I suppose timing can be important in a story also. Perhaps not so much timing but pacing. Keeping a story moving, but not too quickly. So many of the books I’ve read lately have been non-stop action. The author throwing one problem after another at the cast and hoping that they can distract from the […]
It seems strange that the characters in story sometimes take over and shape where the story is going and what is likely to be happening. In the current story the male main character, de Quincey was always going to be the strongest. The one with the most action and in theatrical terms, the most lines. […]
I suppose, there is a sweet-spot somewhere between complex and simple that allows the story to unfurl easily while still keeping the reader’s attention captivated. I’ve read enough books recently to know that too simple is boring, books full of pointless description because the author can’t think of what he or she wants the character […]
In the current climate of terror, we ventured out into the open this morning, Mrs D and myself, armed only with a small warning bell and a long pole to keep the ‘others’ away. We ventured onto the beach at St. Annes. Fortunately the tide was out so we had all of seven or maybe […]
A historical story, like any other needs a prompt, something to get it up and running. Dark Roads had several. The first I suppose was a gift one Christmas from my wonderful wife, of a book entitled Mapping the Roads, by Mike Parker, a fascinating history of map making in Britain. Having read Mapping the […]