This is Ink & Intrigue—the blog where romance ignites, secrets simmer, and every love story hides a twist. I’m your blog host, Sheila Kell, romance author and lover of plot twists, slow burns, and morally questionable book boyfriends.
People sometimes ask if I ever delete entire chapters.
The answer is yes. Sometimes scenes. Sometimes pages. Occasionally, paragraphs I spent an hour polishing disappear with one tap of the Delete key.
But the scene I delete most often isn’t the action scene that didn’t work. It isn’t the dialogue that fell flat. It isn’t even the chapter that wandered off course. It’s the scene where I explain too much.
When I first draft a story, I know everything about my characters. I know what they’re thinking, why they made a certain choice, and what every look or gesture means.
The problem is…my readers don’t need me to tell them all of it.
In fact, the story is often stronger when I don’t.
One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned as a writer is that readers are incredibly smart.
- They notice the glance across the room.
- They understand why a character hesitates before answering a question.
- They recognize that silence can say far more than another paragraph of explanation.
Sometimes the best thing I can do for a scene is remove the sentence that explains what the reader has already figured out.
It’s tempting to make everything crystal clear. To explain the emotion. To spell out the motivation. To reassure the reader that they’re interpreting the moment correctly.
But stories become more powerful when readers are invited to participate.
Instead of telling you the hero is worried, I’d rather show him checking the rearview mirror one more time.
Instead of explaining that the heroine is afraid, I’d rather let you see her steadying her hands before she reaches for the doorknob.
Those little moments ask the reader to lean in. To connect the dots. To become part of the story instead of simply watching it unfold.
Ironically, deleting words often makes a scene feel richer.
Not because less is always more, but because the right details leave room for imagination.
As readers, we don’t remember every sentence in a novel.
We remember how a scene made us feel.
As a writer, that’s the feeling I’m chasing.
So if you could peek behind the curtain while I’m editing, you’d probably be surprised by what disappears.
- Not the explosions.
- Not the rescues.
- Not the plot twists.
The extra explanation.
Because I trust you.
And when a reader is trusted, something wonderful happens.
The story doesn’t just belong to the author anymore. It belongs to both of us.
Thanks for joining me on Ink & Intrigue, where romance and suspense go hand in hand.
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Until next time—keep writing, keep swooning, and remember: every heart has a secret. 💕