A while ago I took a workshop in which the
presenter recommended writing a sentence summing up the purpose of each
paragraph in a chapter just to make sure all the paragraphs were necessary. At
the time, that struck me as torture—and, to be honest, it still does. But the
idea behind the exercise was legit. Nothing should be in your book that doesn’t
serve a purpose.
No extraneous crap, in other words.
![]() |
https://amzn.to/2JNNlfr |
I was reminded of this principle while I
was reading a thriller. The hero had just been reunited with the heroine, his
one true love. He was bringing her back to his apartment in order to protect
her from the bad guy. On the way in, he stopped to pick up his mail, then
dropped it into one of the grocery bags he was carrying upstairs.
Let me tell you, I stayed fixated on that
mail for the next five pages. Surely it would come back to be important in the
plot. Maybe the mail included a letter with a crucial piece of information.
Maybe the hero’s obsession with the heroine would distract him from finding a
clue to the villain’s identity in his mail stack. Because surely the author
wouldn’t just describe the hero picking up the mail for no particular reason.
Actually, that’s just what she did. The
mail, and the fact that the hero stopped to pick it up, never came up again.
I have a good idea why the author chose to
include the fact that the hero picked up his mail. She probably thought, “When
I come home, I always pick up the mail, so he should do the same thing.” In
other words, the author thought she was being realistic. But here’s the thing:
real life includes all kinds of things that don’t show up in fiction. Part of
the author’s job, in fact, is to pare away the details of life that don’t have
any bearing on the story. And in this case, the author failed to do that—and
failed pretty spectacularly.
If the mail had been the only detail the
author included for no particular reason, it would only have been a minor
problem. But this particular author included lots of them, so many, in fact,
that the plot started to bog down under their weight. And after a while, I just
gave up.
Any story will wither if you throw in too
much extraneous stuff, and what constitutes extraneous stuff will differ from
genre to genre. Those of us writing paranormal will have to explain some of the
details of our world, and so will those writing historical romances.
Contemporary writers may have to explain settings or narrative hooks. All of us
will have things that have to be gone into, Lord help us. Unfortunately, we may
misjudge the level of detail we need for our particular situation. And if we
do, the reader may get so tired of trudging through the bog that she won’t
stick around for the denouement.
But as authors, we all have a central task.
We decide what our readers need to know, and what they don’t. Then we tell them
whatever it is they need. And then, with any luck, we all move on.
Meg Benjamin is
an award-winning author of contemporary romance. Her newest series, the Folk,
is a paranormal trilogy set in Colorado .
Meg’s Konigsburg series is set in the Texas Hill Country and her Salt Box and
Brewing Love trilogies are set in the Colorado Rockies (both are available from
Entangled Publishing). Along with contemporary romance, Meg is also the author
of the paranormal Ramos Family trilogy from Berkley InterMix. Meg’s books have
won numerous awards, including an EPIC Award, a Romantic Times Reviewers’
Choice Award, the Holt Medallion from Virginia Romance Writers, the Beanpot
Award from the New England Romance Writers, and the Award of Excellence from
Colorado Romance Writers. Meg’s Web site is http://www.MegBenjamin.com. You can
follow her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/meg.benjamin1), Pinterest
(http://pinterest.com/megbenjamin/), and Twitter (http://twitter.com/megbenj1).
Meg loves to hear from readers—contact her at meg@megbenjamin.com.
GIVEAWAY
authors
Away
books
giveaway
goddess fish
guest post
Jo Linsdell
Meg Benjamin
The Devil in the Details
writers
writing
8 Comments
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed getting to know your book and thanks for the chance to win :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the tour and thanks so much for the opportunity to win. I enjoy getting to hear about new books that my family would enjoy reading.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting read. I hope that your book is a success. Bernie Wallace BWallace1980(at)hotmail(d0t)com
ReplyDeleteGreat post, I enjoyed reading it!
ReplyDeletehey ... all the best for your endeavour
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting me!
ReplyDeleteI love to hear from you. So feel free to comment, but keep in mind the basics of blog etiquette — no spam, no profanity, no slander, etc.
Thanks for being an active part of the Writers and Authors community.