The Reading Experience: Like it Long or Short?



My first novel was a time travel romance of about 80,000 words. The editor who bought it requested I add 20,000 more words to the story. What a challenge! But many readers want that 400 page, 100,000 word experience, and feel cheated by anything less.

And then there are readers who want to grab a quick, short story on the go. A novella may suit the bill, something to tuck in their purse or download for a read during the lunch hour.

I personally enjoy all lengths at different times. I loved ready Cindy Green’s short story “Snow Kissed” for a break at work, and also loved spending hours upon hours with Diana Gabaldon’s "Outlander" series. I enjoy an inspirational category-length romance as much as I do re-reading "Gone With The Wind."

So what are your preferences? Do you love the long novel with one or more sub-plots? Or do you find sub-plots distracting? Do you love the quick read that satisfies with minimal time investment, or do you find them lacking depth?

Stating The Obvious

Most people have heard this term before. It is usually said with a slight sneer as people try to make valid points, but use too many words.

Writers have a tendency to do it without thinking, mostly because many write the way they talk. Because expressions and tone of voice accompany it, stating the obvious as we talk isn’t as…obvious.

In writing, those expressions and that voice aren’t there to add movement and inflection to the words.

Instead, when writers use the device, it comes across as too wordy, rather than emphasizing a point. Some examples:

George slammed the car door shut.

Everyone knows if you slam a car door…it’s probably shut. So the sentence reads much better as:

George slammed the car door.

Another:

John washed his car, squirting the water on the sides and front, removing the grime that had accumulated.

The first four words will suffice. Again, one knows that to wash a car means to remove grime, by squirting water all over it.

John washed his car.

Basically, the writer is repeating what was already said, simply using different words. In other words, REDUNDANCY. Don’t beat the reader over the head, simply make the point and move on.

Prose will read much clearer and the reader will appreciate being able to get to the meat of the novel much sooner.

Good Writing is Timeless

Recently I stumbled upon How To Write for Moving Pictures: A Manual Of Instruction and Information, by Marguerite Bertsch, copyright 1917.  In skimming through the book I noticed that much of the writing advice applied not only to the silent films of the time period, but to any sort of writing in any era.  This is one of my favorite passages:



What is common to all audiences will be found to lie very close to those principles and ideals which actuate a people in the affairs of everyday life.

Regardless of those successes that have had their day through a risque element which the author and producer handled with a delicacy that brought it just this side of the offensive, there is perhaps no factor in the public mind which can be so banked upon as its response to what is pure and elevating. Realising that the human soul is so constructed that goodness attracts it like a magnet while evil repels, and that those individuals in whom this is not true are classed by all others as abnormal, we have the basis of the first great requirement,—a wholesome atmosphere.

By this we do not mean that the audience prefers to be fed upon a milk and sugar diet, and that it has not a deep and abiding interest in all those phases of life which it knows to exist, whether of good or evil. On the contrary, the darker side of life, the mistakes, the soul upheavals, present a light and shade to an audience that is fraught with the keenest dramatic interest. It is only in the manner in which he handles such a theme that an author can offend. So long as the author's point of view regarding his subject coincides with that of the audience, his work will be a serious, wholesome exposition of life's facts, be they dark or light. Too often, however, an author gets the notion that an audience's clamouring after knowledge is a hankering after vice. Working under this misguided judgment, he presents vice to the audience, loving it; crime, excusing it, and the dark, unpleasant side of life, bringing out no larger truths to justify its introduction.
Nothing is more quickly detected, nor more keenly resented by an audience than such an attempt to set at defiance those principles on which their beings are founded, and in opposition to which there is no life.

This still rings true for me.  Bravo Marguerite Bertsch!

Infuse the Muse

The weekend is upon us and I know for some that means more writing time and for others more family time. For me it’s both. We do spend time as a family over the weekend but I also try to sneak in a couple hours of uninterrupted writing time if I am in writing mode. So with that in mind let’s think about keeping that muse revved and ready for some productive work.

A while back I took time out to rewrite my very first book which had gone Out of Print in the hopes of resubmitting it elsewhere.

MY GOODNESS! That rewriting business really zapped the inspiration and creativity out of writing. I’d been feeling a bit overwhelmed and hadn't been having any good bouts of writing. And that made me irritable and an irritable writer is not a productive one. At least not in my case. I needed a shot in the pants to get me going but what? There are all kinds of articles about inspiring that story and focusing your muse. Some will work and others won’t. It just depends on you. Here’s what helped me during that rewrite.

I spent some time reading through Writer’s Digest magazine and The Writer magazine. Both excellent resources. In The Writer there was an article about breathing life into your characters. Now to be honest, there was nothing new or exciting about this article. Many of the points were ones I’ve read before and even shared with other authors. But I thought—what they hay—let’s give it a try. Because sometimes if you get bogged down, bored or just stuck on one project, a new one will get you going again.

I ran across a blurb I wrote about a year ago and thought—wouldn’t that make a great romantic comedy?! And the inspiration started to flow. I followed the advice in The Writer’s magazine and created the Alec and Jane characters as well as brainstormed some ideas of what would happen throughout the book and outlined the first chapter. Wow, the Muse was back! And then I reopened my other project and zoomed through the rest of the chapter. It worked. I was back in business. And when I get time I have a great story to start on.

So, tell me how is the Muse been treating you. If you’ve been feeling stuck, what works to get you started again?