Exit, Stage Left!

No, this post isn’t about the Hanna-Barbera animated character Snagglepuss. (Yeah, I’m definitely aging myself here.) Instead, it’s about stage direction – you know, those descriptions, tags and ‘beats’ we writers use to move our characters around within the setting we’ve created.

To be even more precise, this post is about UNNECESSARY stage direction.

Too much stage direction can really slow down the pace. Too little stage direction can really confuse your reader. Either can make the reader...