I’m reading James Scott Bell’s Revision & Self-Editing and laughed out loud when he talked about “talking heads”. This is when two people meet and just stand and talk.

BORING!

You need to give the scene some action, whether it is with the characters themselves or their surroundings.

It can happen with just one head too, as seen with my character in the first chapter. I had my heroine escaping from a convent and while she is running away, her thoughts take her back to the events that led to her escape. A long parade of thoughts with no action. Someone pointed this out to me and suggested I add in details of her surroundings and her actual run to break up her inner thoughts.

Don’t you love it when a light bulb goes off and you “get it”? It is such a good feeling! Needless to say, I fixed that scene right up and it works alot better!

Do you ever have talking heads or are you past this phase in your writing?