One aspect of writing that’s been more of a challenge for me with the next novel, as opposed to “Killing the Immortals,” has been striking a balance between keeping the suspense taut for the reader, while also giving the reader the details they need.
In “Killing the Immortals,” I (somehow) wrote the damn thing in six weeks, so I pretty much just blew through it. I had a clear vision of what I wanted the story to be, and it came to me rather easily … strangely enough. I wanted it to be a tight read that basically put the reader in a suspense stranglehold and never let go, and I think I roughly accomplished that. There’s just zero fat in that book. It needs basically everything that’s there, and it doesn’t need a whole lot more. It’s svelte.
For my next novel, though, it’s not coming quite so easily. I still have a good idea of what I want the story to be, but I’m not writing as fast, and I think there’s more to explain in this post-apocalyptic world. But how much do you stop driving the story forward to provide that explanation? My instinct is to just keep pushing the plot ahead; if it doesn’t move the story in the direction I want, I tend to want not to write it. It’s a bias toward action and forward momentum.
I think there could be some insecurity to that. Maybe I’m not confident enough that my writing is strong enough to keep the reader’s attention unless they’re constantly wondering what’s coming next. I always said Dan Brown wasn’t all that great a writer, but my approach actually reminds me a lot of his. Of course, I never suggested I was better. Ya know, just that he’s not exactly Shakespeare. I’ll begrudgingly admit, neither am I.
So, if it’s a crutch of sorts, maybe it’s one I need right now. But how do you strike the right balance? When I’m reading, I know I don’t mind a decent amount of exposition. It helps to round out the characters, and give me more context by which to judge what’s happening. There’s no doubt, though, that it can bog the story down if it goes too far. And the challenge is bigger while you’re in the middle of writing because you can’t go back and look at the story like a reader, at least for awhile. You almost have to do it by feel. Or perhaps even write chapters out of order, then jigsaw puzzle the damn thing at some point later. It’s important that I eventually sit back and take a 65,000-foot view of this story, but I have to stay immersed in the world for the time being.
I’d be interested to hear from any readers or writers, on what you think works as far as a balance here. Do you like a significant amount of description and detail, or do you want the suspense to build relentlessly throughout the story? And, if you’re a writer, how do you decide when the story’s momentum should take a backseat to more description?
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