Suddenly, A Rant Appears...

[horizonchaser]

You know, this has been bugging me. Every time I talk to someone that writes, particularly professionally, or read their information on writing, it all boils down to “trim, edit, remove!” Get rid of the excess, the fat

Comments

[cinema_babe]

There is a difference between literary fat and bad writing.

Literary fat is giving the reader endless paragraphs of exposition that does nothing to move the story along. For example, spending tie talking about a character's trip to Istanbul or the meticulous way they eat a sandwich is fat if it has nothing to do with the story and does not add anything.

A rule of thumb I was taught was that if you can have a character *do it* don't *show it*

What you are describing is bad writing. If there is a key relationship, action, habit or occurrence, it should be mentioned or shown in the story. X being Y's boyfriend is a key fact and should have been mentioned.

A good illustration of this is if you look at Charles Dickens or Victor Hugo. They both wrote long books but there is no wasted action or description in there. If you read contemporaries of theirs, It is not uncommon to find fat.

Hope this helps to assuage your ire.,

[horizonchaser]

Yup yup. I know what you say, definitely. And yep, those tend to be the writers I read. :D

I still wonder what would happen to (say) Dickens if he was writing today. "Say, Charlie, this is a cool story, but you know, it's LONG. I'm going to consolidate this into one Christmas ghost, it'll be a faster, more zippy read!

O.o; (I admit, it's been a LONG TIME since I read anything new. Hopefully, this isn't so anymore!)

[cinema_babe]

It depends on who you read. If you read John Grisham, it's going to be short punch dreck.

If you read authors who are more literary (Jonathan Franzen, John Irving, TC Boyle) You'll find books that are meaty, thought provoking and *BIG*.

[horizonchaser]

Big is good! :D

[birdzilla]

I really like the interaction between Sheldon and Hakkabi. It gives a strong feel of the kind of friendship they've built up. And I like Violet and her dad finally talking about her mom.