I'm beginning my first edits of The Mageborn Mechanic and I'm noticing things I did well and things that I can improve. (so far, so good)
One thing I'm going to have to balance is how quickly to reveal info about the plot and characters and conflicts therein. Mageborn Mechanic is a much faster-paced novel than anything I've written, I was basically trying to write a YA thriller with magic in it. As a result, I ended up -in the first draft, at least- revealing a lot of inner conflict of the protagonist very early.
I haven't decided if this is a bad thing or a good thing (thrillers can't sit around, layering in backstories...so far as I can tell, I could be wrong there, too). But when I compare it to a slower-paced novel, like Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow, I see how he reveals things more slowly.
I think the slow method works better. But I like slower-paced novels and that is SO not what this book is like. So what I'm going to do in my second draft is tease instead of tell.
Instead of stating what my character's conflict with another character is, I'm going to leave it unsaid and have their actions and dialog show it, with just a hint of the why.
Teasing turns pages. Teasing involves the reader.
Now you don't want to go too far, as with anything, you can tease your readers too much. Sometimes they just want to know what's going on, why he hates her, who the bad guys are (and if they are really bad). What I don't need to tease about is motivations, those need to be clear. I need always be showing or telling the reader what's at stake and why Simon is running from this group or that.
Thrillers seem to tease via revelations, one after the other, leading to climax. They tease via questions that are not answered when they're posed. I guess I'll see how well that worked once I get my readers involved
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