Making Word(s) Count #5: Reactions and Scale or “I’m Hit!” she said lightly.

Maya Bohnhoff (and Clancy)

Among the many manuscripts I’ve critiqued or edited, I occasionally encounter writers who have a problem with scale.

I do not mean that their prose contains too many minerals and leaves a residue on the page (well, okay, maybe that’s part of the problem). I mean when it comes to the cycles of action / reaction in the story, the proportions are wrong. That is to say, the emotional reactions of the characters to events and reveals are out-of-keeping proportionally. This...