Balance

You all know those big scales in a doctor's office.  There's a square, black pad of ribbed rubber to stand on, with a single metal bar rising up against the wall.  One cold arm reaches out, almost daring you to find your weight.  After removing your shoes (because they weigh at least eight pounds) your carefully step up.  And then you wait so the scale settles down and doesn't mistakenly add a few pounds.  Finally, the moment comes to balance the small, white triangle.

Moving the large weight into position you begin tapping the smaller one.  Back and forth you nudge it, trying to find that sweet spot were the arm sits balanced.  A tap to the right and the arm flies too high, then clanks sharply against the bottom after a left-tap goes too far.  Tap. Tap. Tap.  Finally you begin to start guessing a number, averaging a weight that is over the balanced middle with one that slipped a little below.

So much like writing.  The little square of the computer screen or pad of paper provides the measure.  Somewhere in your head is a small arm with sliding weights and the search is on for balance.  An extra comparison or sloppy adjective sends the overweight bar crashing down.  On the other hand, skimp on the dialog and the story loses too much weight.  You add a phrase here, and adjust the tense there.  Each time the arm rises or falls.  A single word may sound wrong or an entire page may stumble aimlessly.  Tap. Tap. Tap.  Somewhere is that sweet spot with balances between writing enough to create a compelling story without writing so much that readers are force-fed every detail.   Even-handed rather than heavy- or light-handed.  The right tense, voice, dialog, description, comparison, length, hook,... the list is a long one.

Balance in a story may be the hardest thing for me to find.  I'm still trying to understand when I've found it, let alone how I got there.  Even this early in my "career" I enjoy when the words flow seamlessly from thought to reality, just as I struggle when they clomp out of my head and stumble onto the page--which happens more often than not.  Talent and experience, however, help us nudge our work closer, faster, towards a great story.  And so we all go: learning; crafting; applying.  Tap. Tap. Tap.