This lesson was probably the biggest eye-opener for me.
Whenever something important happens in your novel, your character’s reaction should happen in this order:
- Emotional reaction (often shown through physical change)
- Mental reaction (shown through thoughts or speech)
- Action
For example, your character comes home to find the door locked. He first scrunches up his face to show confusion. Then he thinks, “That’s weird. I thought Bob was home.” And finally, he goes to look in the window to see if there are lights on.
Category: On Writing