Aw, Ya Ruined It!

by Linda Yezak
(Nacogdoches, Texas)

I recently read two books which were wonderful ... until the end. The let-down was so great, I may never read anything from either of the authors again.

The first book, a mystery, was riveting with a lovable hero, action-packed scenes, clever lines, and carefully concealed clues. But the end was an info-dump sandwich. In between one scene of intense action and another of tear-jerking sentimentality, were two long, draggy chapters of backstory dumped on the reader in one boring heap.

If I had been this writer's critique partner, I would've shouted: "Don't do that!"

Although the author must have figured the information dump was necessary, much of the backstory could have been incorporated into the main story; quite a bit of it could have been eliminated altogether.

By revelation time in a whodunnit, the clues should have already been presented, so that the ending can flow easily and stem from what has previously been revealed. The reader's reaction should be, "Oh! I didn't think of that!" or "I thought so!" Not, "Will this ever end?"

If you mystery writers find you have to fill in the blanks by the end of the book, find out how some of them could have been filled in during the story. Be merciless at axing out info dumps!

I'll tackle book two in my next post. Meanwhile, happy writing!