It's no secret that I'm a bit of a geek. I love computers, games, and all sorts of odd things here and there that we need not get into right now.
Know what that makes me? A character in my own life.
Know what else I am? I'm a wizard. (First person to do a crappy Hagrid impression gets a fist in the eye. You're no Robbie Coltane)
My magic power is spinning words into feelings, which brings us to the word of the day (I'll apologize right here. I'm going to use this word a lot, and I may have before in my blog. Too bad. You're reading it again).
That word is: Evoke
There are likely parts of your story you hold dear to. They took you a long time to write, to come up with the best way to phrase it, with the comma in the right spot so everything moves at the speed of mud.
Cut it. You don't need overly florid descriptions, or lots of extra back story hanging around your work like an anchor. Know it. Memorize it, but for the love of Cthulu, leave it be. (Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh)
Paint the image of what you want the reader to feel when they get to the scene. Don't worry TOO much about the general rules that say not to use adverbs, or certain phrases, or even Chuck Palahniuk's precious post about unpacking (Which I adore, and if you are a writer, you must read. It's that good, so why am I saying ignore it? Read on).
The first step toward writing something worth reading is to get them to understand what you are saying, and that doesn't happen by telling them, or in some cases, showing them. They have to feel it. It's a universal translator.
Evoke. It gives you magical power over readers, and that's the key to writing something special.
The unpacking, and all the other parts will come with your ability to make those feelings happen. They feed off each other. Go do it.
