The Pope in the Pool
- February 2, 2022
- Connie Berry

In my current WIP, I’m writing a scene where my protagonist, an antiques dealer, is shown a number of items found together in an old leatherbound trunk. The items are clues, and the reader needs to know exactly what they are so they can understand what comes next. In fiction writing, this is called exposition, and it’s a tricky thing to get right because it can pull your readers out of the scene. Like saying, “Thank you for your attention, now back to the book.” I’d written and rewritten the scene several times, shortening the exposition, trying to make the details more interesting. It still wasn’t right. Then, in the middle of the night, an idea came to me, as they often do. There’s something about the liminal space between wakefulness and sleep that stimulates the creative side of my brain. Sometimes, with the light of dawn, I find that brilliant idea has flown away. Sometimes I realize that brilliant idea wasn’t brilliant. Every once in a while, though, I remember what popped into my brain, and it’s exactly the right thing. That’s what happened with my problem scene. The idea that came to me was a screenwriting tool called […]
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