Thank you!

Big thanks go to Zinnia and Clare of Boob Pencil fame for their very helpful (and substantial) comments to my previous post.

I would like to respond to their comments. Everyone else can listen in, I'm sure Zinnia and Clare won't mind. :o)

Firstly Zinnia. Nope, this wasn't the NaNoWriMo effort. That's securely filed away to be looked at in about a year for me to laugh at! This is a story idea that first came to me whilst I was invigilating an exam about four years ago. Exams are sooooo boring and I'd done all the work that I had taken in with me. My mind wandered and a seed of an idea started to grow.
I started this as a first person, then swapped to third person and have finally come back to the protagonist's POV. This has limitations but, as you say, adds immediate action and tension.
Great idea to read random passages of my favourite authors. I guess I have to take off my "reader" hat and try to analyse them a bit to see why I like them so much.
Thank you, Zinnia.

Now onto Clare's comments. Firstly, welcome to my humble abode!
I love the idea of messing around with the time line. Thinking about it, most if not all of the story is written in strict chronological style. I will definately have to have a play around with that. I like the 'exposition to ammunition' idea. I can already think of a few incidents where I can use that.
I'm working hard to get inside my characters' heads at present. Then hopefully through their individual personalities I can show the reader what they are like whilst providing information from their own unique perspectives.
Thank you for the Robert McKee recommendation - a copy is on it's way to me.

And finally, I would like to end with a question for readers:
If it's not relevant to the story, how important is it that you are show in some way what the character looks like (unless, of course, their appearance influences their actions)?
When you're reading, do you want to know exactly what the main characters look like or are you happy to create an image in your mind?