Knowing when to finish is, maybe, more important than figuring out how/where to start.
Writing is exciting for me. Once an idea starts flowing and moving there’s a tendency to get carried away. Over describing. Over explaining. Needing to share every bit of the character and their thoughts. It all feels vital, a must be included. Too good to leave out.
This is the start of an author’s problems. There’s too much. It starts to bog the story down, takes over the excitement of it all. Bores the reader.
Can the same be said for, painting or knitting or gardening or cooking? Of course, it can. It’s too easy to turn a light seascape picture into a muddle mess of chaos. How long should a scarf or blanket really be? Do you need every single colour in the rainbow? Gardens…too much will kill. Cooking…confusion-fusion (okay, I might have stolen that from some cooking show).
Some of these examples can be rectified. Saved. Others, once you add there’s no way to subtract and more isn’t the correction.
Even this posting…when to end? Here and now? Or continue to try and make the point and offer the same suggestions just worded differently?
Talk with you later.