Do you tend to overwrite and lean to the flowery?  Do your metaphors and similes ramble along for pages?  That’s okay if you’re writing for style, not so much, if you are writing a mystery, suspense, or horror novel.  You don’t want to bore your reader to death.  It is best to put the brakes on overdoing the stylishness.  I know many a reader who will skip over those long segments of description to get to the meat of the story.

     I am guilty of not doing enough description.  My writing is sparse and tight-too tight, it seems.  My critique group tells me, “show me more, I want to see where you protagonist is.”  I groan and make notes of where they beg for more description.  Then I struggle to give them more.  After all that’s why I go to the critique group.  They see my weaknesses and help me to correct them.

     In each chapter I toil to raise the odds, end them with cliffhangers that drive a reader to go on to read the next one.  I’m getting better at cranking up the tension in small ways too. 

     I’m still learning.  I never want to stop.