You need to find a balance. Really, you do.
While working on my “Writing to a Deadline” piece, I was trying very hard in the first draft not to make any of the mistakes I made in my larger manuscript.
I may have over done it, though.
In trying to make sure that my characters don’t “step” too much, and after hearing feedback from a beta that said “we don’t have to know about every move”—Now at times, my characters don’t move at all.
A new beta pointed out that my characters magically disappear from one spot, and appear in another, with no explanation whatsoever. Well, obviously they walked. (There are no Star Trek transporters in my current WIP)
The problem is, I tried to write this story in a way that inferred that they walked… but it didn’t always work.
Now back to editing, and make sure to make them move without stepping around a lot.
Ugh.
Jennifer M Eaton 
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Isn’t that the way it works! You try to remedy one problem and another pops up in its place. Good luck on revisions. 🙂
Bless you for trying so hard to get rid of the stepping Jennifer 🙂 I tried to get rid of all the ‘was’ in mine, and after staring at the screen for half an hour I realised it just wasn’t going to work. As you said, it is all about the balance.
There’s nothing wrong with saying a character walked if you make it kind of incidental. I don’t really know how to explain what I mean, but you have to somehow show characters’ movements or the scene won’t make sense. You’ll also find people will call you out on something that another person thinks you did correctly. LOL
Walking is okay. The problem is constantly walking. In my case, they “stepped” everywhere. I needed to change up the way I expressed things.
Sometimes I think I leave to much to the imagination. But I’m with you — you have to assume people walk places unless written otherwise — like they drove or they ran. But I’ll have to look back and make sure my characters aren’t cemented to the floor.
Sometimes you really need someone else to read it, because you “know” what they are doing, so you see it clearly in your mind.
Is the typo in your headline (you for your) on purpose?
AAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaa! NO! I just saw one in the post, too. ERGGHHHHH.
That’s hilarious… and yes, the balance is tough, but I’m sure you’ll find a way to express movement through either dialogue, scenery, or plot development. You’ll find a way!
Pink.
I think I’ve finally got it!
I do this all the time. We just assume the reader will understand.
In my recent WIP, I had a character in the tub and in the next scene he’s in his bedroom. It was almost as if the tub moved into the bedroom with him in it. Weird writer brains.
Ha! I remember that. I’m sure it sounded fine to you, but I was totally confused as to where that tub was.
Do you mean when going from scene to scene or within the same scene?
Kind of a combination of both. I think I was being overly-wary.
Sometimes a line break is all you need. This could indicate a person has changed location without actually having them walk. This is a hard one the we all struggle with.
Make sure you do it at your own pace.
get it? pace?
Writing at midnight again? 🙂