"There is too much thinking in narrative writing, so you just better stop it. Thinking is like..."

“There is too much thinking in narrative writing, so you just better stop it. Thinking is like telling. You need some … but if you use thinking to explain your characters – their motivations, their psychologies – then you fail your readers. You are saying, in effect, I don’t think you’ll get this on your own, so here is what Sally is thinking, and that’s why she didn’t go with her mother that day. We should be able to get why Sally didn’t go with her mother from other things in the writing – the action, the sense of imagery and rhythm, dialogue, a feel for the character. If you have to tell us, then something is weak elsewhere in the story.”

- Marcia Golub

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