The Librarian in the Sidebar
The words were perfect. Detective Miller watched the rain streak the window, the cold seeping into his bones, a mirror to the case that had gone just as cold. I loved that line. It was the kind of atmospheric detail that pulled the reader in. But then came the next paragraph, the one where Miller had to call his partner, Tom, and the whole thing ground to a halt. I needed a quick, believable detail about Tom’s new apartment—something I’d mentioned three books ago, a throwaway line about a noisy neighbor. I used to dread this. The mental shift from creator to archivist. I’d have to minimize the manuscript, open my "Series Bible" document, search for "Tom's apartment," find the file, search that file for "neighbor," and by the time I found the detail—a loud tuba player—the mood, the rain, the cold seeping into Miller’s bones, would all be gone. The thread of the story, once taut, would be slack. Now, it’s different. I simply highlighted the w...