Reason #5 – Throat Clearing

Too far removed from the inciting incident

Don’t spend time warming your engine. Start close to the point where the hero’s world starts to change.

James N Frey says, “…beginning writers falsely believe they have to ‘set the stage’ and ‘inform the reader about past events’ before getting on with the story.”

In his Top Ten Rules of Writing Elmore Leonard says, “even if you’re good at [writing scenes with weather or scenery], you don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.” If the story is at the beginning, the effect can be mind numbing and turn the reader off before even getting started.

Published by Norm Benson

My name is Norm Benson and my Lowdermilk manuscript is out for beta review. This is the story of Walter and Inez Lowdermilk, an American couple who came to see soil erosion as a threat to civilization. Their pursuit of land conservation carried them from China and the Dust Bowl to Palestine, where their ideas about reclaiming the land helped build the case for the creation of Israel.

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