That's interesting, Susan. I think I'm the opposite, because of the time I spent writing text rpgs, where it's all sensual and the players fill in all the dialogue. I notice that my most recent piece is all description and action and introverted What They Feeeel, and very little actual conversation.

I like it balanced, but you have to go with the requirements of the scene, I think.

I couldn't write something like a text rpg to save my life, because it'd break my brain having to describe EVERYTHING.

The other cool thing about the new story is when I was writing the one before it, I thought I'd never come up with two characters I liked more than my hero and heroine. Now that I'm into the new one, I'm enjoying its protagonists even more, and my writing group is already half in love with the hero. Though I'm worried that I've made him a little too good in all his common decency, innate generosity, and subtle courage. Must ponder his flaws.

Susan, I had one person tell me the characters in my books are too civilised.

I pointed out they were Brits. Left the nice brawly American lady to figure out why that made a difference...

Heh. I had to work at convincing a member of my group that my hero, Jack, who's been in Portugal and Spain more or less continuously for three years or so, would speak pretty good Spanish. Because Brits don't usually bother learning other people's languages. I stuck to my guns, since the Brit in question is smart, curious, and cognizant of the value of speaking the language of people who might offer an allied army useful intelligence and support.

Thing about Jack is that he reminds me a lot of my father--I didn't write him that way on purpose, but it occurred to me after I'd written a little from his POV that if there's ever a book I should dedicate to Dad, this is the one. So now I'm trying to decide what Dad's flaws are, just to see if that'd work for Jack, and, you know, I'm lucky, because it's hard. I mean, he loses his temper if you push him really hard, and he doesn't suffer fools gladly, but I'd have a hard time writing those as anything other than virtues...

Well, there are times not suffering fools gladly can edge on intolerance. And under certain circs, that could get your hero (or heroine) into deep trouble, especially if they're abroad.

Deb, I'd be glad to read. Tomorrow is a reading day. I'm staying offline except for email, and catching up on my beta duties. As well as some other stuff.

Susan, a woman in my group has had to be pushed to describe, well, pretty much anything. She says she doesn't want to bore us with trivia. When pushed, she admitted since she sees everything so vividly, she actually thought she was writing it into the story. We set her exercises, of describing in as many senses as possible. She found it really hard, but she got better with practice. It's still not natural to her, and she has to push to get there, but she's aware of the need to expand a little, now.

I'm a very sensual reader, and I like smells and sounds and textures, as well as visual cues. Dialogue is important, depending on the scene as Deb says. But the scenery must be painted, the orchestra rehearsed and ready, and the costumes worn with some authority to pull me into the story and give me a chance to have an emotional reaction or relationship with characters.

Well, the one thing that's going to get Jack into deep trouble is the fact he's not hiding his contempt for someone who outranks him quite as well as he thinks he is. Which will lead to that officer having no compunction whatsoever about screwing him over when he has an opportunity to advance his own interests by doing so. But still, Jack isn't the one with the big flaw here--letting frustration with incompetence show is pretty minor compared to blackmail and threatened murder.

Beverly, it sounds like I have the opposite problem--I'm not a visual thinker, and the only things in my stories I see clearly are the characters themselves. I have to work very hard to imagine things like room furnishings or anything more specific to scenery than "hilly" or "wooded."

I'm entirely too wordy. When I'm actually, you know, writing. I drown readers in detail.

I was trying to practice a spare style. I think I did it entirely too well.