As I mentioned in my post about Oz, I've been working on rewriting the scene in my manuscript where the main characters make the transition from our ordinary world into someplace...different. I knew going into the revisions that this would be one of the hardest scenes to get right. In the first draft, I was more concerned about getting the series of events in place, making sure that what happened once the characters reached this place was dramatic enough. It was like making a line drawing, and now I'm tasked with painting the picture in brilliant colors.
So far I've spent an unusual amount of time on this chapter, trying to fully capture the sights, sounds and scents of this new setting. These are the things that would actually overwhelm the characters, so these are the things they need to experience. But it's a fine line between making a world come alive and lingering too long on description to where it distracts from the story.
In some ways, novel writing is just an endless balancing act between what is said and what is not said, and when to say those things that must be said. Sometimes, it's just a little more delicate than others.
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