Some people spend so much time on the stuff that doesn't matter they neglect the stuff that does. Here are a few tips to stop this happening to you...
1. Names don't matter. Spending fifteen minutes coming up with the perfect name for your character means you just wasted fifteen minutes coming up with one word. Okay, Bob is a bit simple and Shaneequa is just flat out crazy* but surely no one will notice if your character has a fairly normal name for the situation you are writing about.
2. Start as close to the end of your story as possible. I stole this one from Kurt Vonnegut. Put simply, as the reader, I don't need to know everything that led up to the moment you're writing about unless it actually connects to that moment in a meaningful. The cornflakes your protagonist ate for breakfast won't tell me much about the moment his daughter goes missing from an upmarket flat in France (I stole that storyline from Taken with Liam Neesons) - so leave out breakfast.
* Apologies to anyone called Shaneequa - but you should really take that up with your mum.
1. Names don't matter. Spending fifteen minutes coming up with the perfect name for your character means you just wasted fifteen minutes coming up with one word. Okay, Bob is a bit simple and Shaneequa is just flat out crazy* but surely no one will notice if your character has a fairly normal name for the situation you are writing about.
2. Start as close to the end of your story as possible. I stole this one from Kurt Vonnegut. Put simply, as the reader, I don't need to know everything that led up to the moment you're writing about unless it actually connects to that moment in a meaningful. The cornflakes your protagonist ate for breakfast won't tell me much about the moment his daughter goes missing from an upmarket flat in France (I stole that storyline from Taken with Liam Neesons) - so leave out breakfast.
* Apologies to anyone called Shaneequa - but you should really take that up with your mum.
