Friday, September 14, 2007

Keep your backstory to yourself!

Twice in my current manuscript, I have encountered a scene which involves a group of people talking. Now, these are people who haven't seen each other in a while, so some "hey, what have you been up to?" does make some sense... but I do not need to show all (any?) of it to the reader.

One scene is the one I blogged about a few days ago, which turned out not to belong. Several of its pieces have been incorporated into other scenes; many will be left in my "bits to keep and maybe use" file.

The other scene? I cut it by two-thirds and turned it into an argument instead of a friendly discussion. Now, not only is it interesting on its own but it leads into a future argument.

This editing thing is tough, but it sure does make for a better book!

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