Plot is as much about timing as it is the dramatic action and the transformation the character undergoes.
To satisfy your readers, placement and timing of each scene becomes critical.
Spend too many words, pages, time in the beginning of the piece increases your chances of losing your reader right off the bat. Readers want to be grounded, understand who is who, and what is what, and then the reader demands something big happen ~~ the End of the Beginnning.
The balance between back story and front story, between internal dialog and overt action, between character development and action is delicate and must always be kept in mind.
Just because the story comes out onto the page in a certain order, does not mean that’s where the scene or summary or narration will stay.
How the act of creation happens is mysterious and magical.
Placement and timing is under the author’s control and is part of the craft of writing.
Hey, thanks for putting this stuff out there.
Hey, thanks for putting this stuff out there.
Hi Martha!
Thanks for visiting my Blog! I write Science fiction in the subgenres of Romance and Military Scifi at least that’s what my publishers considers it! Though I’ve been writing for a decade now, like many writers it took me years to have my first novel published. My first book was released last year on Aspen Mountain Press and is entitled Cold Warriors. For me the ‘where’ of the story is everything. I have to see the setting in my minds and I want my readers to do the same. When I am able to see the setting I can see what the characters and doing how they do it. More often than not I know what the ending is but not necessarily the beginning! I usually follow the sage old advice of Orson Scott Card when he wrote ‘Shoot the Sheriff on the first page!’ And I’ve followed that ever since especially since I am a fan of westerns!! Once I find that first scene in the book that sets the tone for the entire novel it carries that tone throughout the rest of the book!
-Clare