Exit Stage Left

So every Tuesday around these parts will be craft Tuesday and to kick it off, I wanted to talk Stage Directions. One of the #1 craft discussions I find myself having with new writers is the one about stage directions. And they often look at me like what? Yeah, it's the thing that doesn't ever get explicitly addressed when you're learning how to write in school. Subject/verb agreement? Yes. Show, don't tell? Yes. But stage directions? Not so much. But I'm here to tell you overuse of stage directions can be deadly.

Overuse of stage directions will often kill a narrative's pace. If a reader has to parse through too much "he reached his hand out to pull her chin closer to him" or "she turned to walk out of the room to answer the phone by picking up the receiver and when she did she twirled the cord and turned to face the bay window" you will surely lose your reader. When there is no way to get around specifying a character's movements, employ the rule of KISS--that's right, Keep It Simple, Sir. (Yeah, I know the last 's' doesn't really stand for Sir, but let's just pretend it does). Ultimately, you're writing a novel, not a play. Piling on the stage directions will slow your pace and lose your reader and ultimately lead to clunky, awkward writing and if you spend so much time describing stage directions, you're not spending time developing a sense of emotion on the page or deeply developing your characters or employing a sense of mood or even working to make use of language special. So as a craft exercise, go through your current WIP (work-in-progress) and isolate the use of stage directions and see what it would look like without. Specifically look for the use of words like turn, reach, look and walk and find an artful, simple way around the usage, especially repetitive usage. If a character is turning, reaching, looking or walking multiple times in close succession, you've got an awkward pile up of stage directions. Try it without the usages. I bet you'll like it. A more streamlined narrative will allow your narrative to breathe and do more artful, compelling things that will quicken your pace and keep your reader enthralled.

Stacey