Recently I took part in a writing workshop outside my genre. At the time the experience wasn’t enjoyable. It was my first time receiving heavy criticism from a group of strangers.
As with many learning experiences it took time for the gains to percolate through. In my writing session today I thought about what my readers would say about my piece.
What I’ve learnt is to imply less and explain more. It’s a good idea to satisfy the reader’s curiosity.
For example, my story begins after the death of a grandmother. Even though she’s not a living character in this story I’m going to have to explain quite a bit about her, including the cause of death.
Cause of death has nothing to do with the story but missing it out will bug some readers.