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Shoutout to my writing group for that one critique that finally made sense
I've been writing short fantasy stories for about 4 years now and always struggled with pacing in the middle chapters. Last month in my online group, Sarah from Ohio pointed out that my protagonist's internal monologue was taking up 3 pages where a single line of action would do. After I trimmed down that scene in my latest 12-page piece, the whole story flowed way better for me. Has anyone else had that one piece of feedback that suddenly unlocked something for you?
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evaperez3mo ago
Half my group texts could be replaced with a single k" is pure gold and so true. That Sarah from Ohio sounds like a gem. I had a similar moment when my critique partner told me my fight scene had three backflips in it. Just one backflip. That change made the whole scene land harder and feel less cartoonish. Cutting the clutter is the real skill, isn't it?
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iris_stone283mo ago
Gasped when I read @janaf76's beta reader wrote that in the margins, holy crap lol.
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janaf763mo ago
Wait, so you're telling me Sarah from Ohio showed you that cutting 3 pages of inner monologue makes a story better? I wish someone would pull me aside and tell me that half my group texts could be replaced with a single "k" and no one would mind. My last beta reader literally wrote "this paragraph is you talking to yourself" in the margins and I still haven't recovered. Maybe I should hire Sarah to follow me around and tell me when I'm being too wordy in real life too, like at Starbucks or the DMV.
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