Finding a happy balance

Regardless of genre, length, or topic being written about, to have some success every author needs to have some balance between dialogue, narrative, point-of-view, and plot. Recently, I looked at a manuscript that had a great story-line. The content however, was as dry as day old toast lol. There was a lot of telling, very little dialogue, and I had a hard time getting into it.

So I thought, why not discuss the benefits of balancing your writing with the content and the active passion of your writing. It doesn't matter what you write, if your readers can't get into it then you're not going to sell. If you don't sell, you're contract can - and often will be - revoked. There are steps that an author can take that are not marketing related to create a wonderful, fast paced, active story.

One of those things is balancing what you're writing about and how your write. For example if someone says to you:

"Joe crossed the bridge when the train was coming."
vs.

The aged wood shook beneath his feet as Joe lunged across the tracks. His chest burned with the need for air as he sucked in huge gulps of air, the train whizzing passed him. The heat from the wheels blistering his face....

You the reader are in the scene, you're experiencing the jump across the tracks, the train going by. As an author, put yourself in your reader's shoes er pages. Is the first line enough information? Do you feel his emotions, his panic, his heart beating, the wind from the train...Do you get the image in your mind you want?

If you answer no to any of these then you need to go back and look at the balance within your writing. Are you using passive tenses, active verbs, adjectives unnecessarily? Harmony can be achieved by using the simple logic of pulling your reader into the storyline that you've set before them.

After careful consideration, I'm hoping that in the coming weeks I can get some things organized so that each Monday I will have a topic for discussion. So what's your balance? How do you get the story flowing not only for you but your readers....?