More Reading…
So Chapter Two Another Day Off…
As I talked about last night, my problems with most stories is not the writing. And I say so if I do have an issue with that.
Been thinking about this as I read more and more stories with the same issue. Information flow problem.
What do I mean by that? Simply put, most writers don’t know when to ease up on the details and back story and bring in the story itself, so I often don’t make it to the story even though the writing is great. That is an information flow problem.
Can a hook help that at the opening? Not so much. Again, all the hook does is a promise of a story, but if it takes too long to get to the story, then the same thing happens. Readers leave and editors like me leave.
The information flow problem goes the other way more often for newer writers. They just jump into the story and there is no depth or reason for the story and readers leave.
So a three bears sort of issue. Too fast, nope. Too much, too slow, nope. Got to be just right. And with one story I bought so far tonight, I didn’t notice it was just right. I just read to the end, it was a Pulphouse style story, and I bought it for a future issue.
Think of it like Mars, Venus, and Earth. Mars is too cold, too much information. Venus too close to the sun, too hot, not enough information. Earth right in the life zone distance from the sun.
So most of the stories I am reading are Mars… Too much information going on too long without a story.
Information flow, one of the most difficult things to learn, but when you get this element of it right, wow.
One Comment
Emilia
I hope the Advanced Information Class will help hit just right more often. I also have the problem of writing a lot of series characters and how much information from the earlier stories do I put in.
It feels odd to leave out mention about a large event in the characters life, but if it’s not relevant to this short story then it’s not.