Paksworld

No sooner was I into a new POV in Book Three than the whole words thing came down on me.

A character “intoned” something.   Now we all now that “said” and “asked” are the safest ways to denote speech: they’re just about invisible and don’t stick out in unwanted ways.   But every once in a while the way of saying or asking matters, and in a situation where a physical gesture won’t do.  In this case, a gnome is quoting The Law.   It’s like a preacher quoting the Ten Commandments…he’s almost chanting it.   Intoning it, in fact.

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As mentioned, some alpha readers found “motivation holes” in the book.  Motivation holes arise when a) a character’s actions aren’t tied to a motivation or b) when the reader doesn’t find the motivations shown to be believable.   Motivation is a huge topic–critical to the success of any story–and it’s a fragile, brittle link between writer and reader.

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