Fiction Writing: Advice and Discussion

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Mr.48: May 1, 2007

So I've noticed that many people give writing advice along the lines of "keep your writing as brief as possible" in the sense of using the fewest possible words to describe whatever you're writing about.

Is this a widely-accepted idea?

I ask because I'm thinking about writing a novel, but I've been criticized for being too "wordy" in writing papers for publication (a hard to break habit from undergraduate days).

# ¿ Aug 20, 2012 06:51

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Mr.48: May 1, 2007

Stuporstar posted:

Mark Twain set the standard for modern writing. Listen to the man:

A lot of people, including myself, have had to break our undergrad habits of padding the wordcount. Breaking that habit is freeing, and so is learning to cut. Check out Ken Rand's 10% solution, linked in the Creative Resources thread. It's the most succinct book you can find on cutting the sluff off your prose.

The whole point in doing this is when you economize, you're forced to choose stronger, better words. You get your point across faster, and what you have to say makes a bigger impact, no matter what kind of writing you're doing.

Thanks for the advice! I'm thinking of ordering The 10% Solution in paperback since I figure I'll be referencing it often and that might be awkward with an e-book. Good idea?

Edit: I should mention that its $14 in paperback, is this a good value?

Mr.48 fucked around with this message at 07:42 on Aug 20, 2012

# ¿ Aug 20, 2012 07:38

Mr.48: May 1, 2007

Dr. Kloctopussy posted:

*very long and interesting post about world-building disease*

As someone who is toying with the idea of writing science-fiction based on the numerous "world-building" ideas I've had over the years (getting tired of writing academic papers) I found your post to be quite interesting. However, from the point of view of someone who reads quite a bit of the genre, I'm not entirely sure that I agree with your main point. I think its really easy to overdo it on the world-building, to the point where the reader feels like the author is torturing them with details that they dont care about. Specific technological details can also make the book feel out of date if the author isn't ambitious enough. Therefore I feel like its best to keep world-building to the minimum necessary for the story to make sense, since the story is what most readers are really there for. On the other hand, if you have a really cool idea about how a world can work but without a really compelling story, its probably better to write it as a short story rather than a full novel. That way, readers can get the "wow factor" of your idea, without it being spoiled by a drawn-out story.

Does any of that make sense?

Mr.48 fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Jan 23, 2015

# ¿ Jan 23, 2015 16:15

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