tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post5459299455169291561..comments2024-03-17T06:03:00.362-04:00Comments on Fiction University: How to Slash Your Word Count by 20-40% – and tighten your story without losing any of the good stuff!Janice Hardyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02356672149097741248noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-82976604248851809602015-10-26T08:24:02.550-04:002015-10-26T08:24:02.550-04:00They would indeed. Tight writing is tight writing,...They would indeed. Tight writing is tight writing, no matter what the length, but with flash fiction, every word *really* counts. They more you can do in fewer words, the more you have to get in the story. The story arc in flash fiction might be a little less defined, but you can still get it in there. <br /><br />A good example of a lot of story in few words is Hemingway's classic six-word short story--For sale--baby shoes. Never worn.<br /><br />Pack as much punch into as many sentences as you can in a flash fiction tale, and you can tell a lot of story. Hard to do, but worth it when it works like this.Janice Hardyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02356672149097741248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-35753774113385791062015-10-24T06:24:11.835-04:002015-10-24T06:24:11.835-04:00would these tips - excellent ones by all means - h...would these tips - excellent ones by all means - hold water for short stories as well? i once got feedback from an editor that my flash fiction piece of 1000 words didn't have a well-defined plot arc, or a character development, or a clear resolution. that stumped me - totally. coming back to the point of shaving off deadwood - we are expecting a lot from authors today and want that they should leap headlong into the woods rather than amble along at a sedate pace. we will have to change the way we want to present stories to the reader in these rushed, distracting and impatient times. to you, JD, many thanks.manjeethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17699082677625658073noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-71862031937270375932015-02-17T09:33:22.635-05:002015-02-17T09:33:22.635-05:00These are great tips, Jodie, because you're ri...These are great tips, Jodie, because you're right--people's attention spans are too short these days not to write like this. And as someone who tends to be wordy I really need this reminder, and will print it off and keep it close by. <br /><br />But I won't deny that having to write like this if you want to be published these days makes me sad; I love language, and I can't help but feel that writing this tight is pushing beautiful, lyrical writing off the edge of the cliff, to be killed forever. I'm in my 50s, so I'm sure part of it is the age gap. Most of the books I grew up devouring would never be published today. <br /><br />Still, thank you for this very detailed breakdown of what to look for. As someone who does want to get published one day, it's very helpful!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10715765444491172401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-77006339191969761222015-02-07T19:57:39.640-05:002015-02-07T19:57:39.640-05:00Peter, I totally agree that characters' phrasi...Peter, I totally agree that characters' phrasing and word choice should sound like those people would actually speak in real life! That applies for all characters, from physicists and university professors to young adults, to street people. A problem I often see in my editing is all characters sounding the same - like the author! Children and rough "thug"types speak very differently than educated adults, of course, but even men and women speak differently. I discuss dialogue this in all three of my books, including my upcoming one.<br /><br />And by the way, in order to create a strong, distinctive, appealing narrative voice, I think the narration should also be in the viewpoint character's word choices and speaking style, and should be colored by his or her preferences, opinions, personality, and mood, as most narration is really the point of view character's observations and reactions to what's going on around him. I get into that a lot in my upcoming book, Captivate Your Readers.Jodie Rennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180607353893233389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-49322802833124737222015-02-07T18:24:38.829-05:002015-02-07T18:24:38.829-05:00Great tips!
One comment about removing unnecessa...Great tips! <br /><br />One comment about removing unnecessary words: in dialogue, and description that's written from a character's viewpoint, words like "quite" and lengthier phrases in place of shorter ones can be important for proper characterization. "That's quite enough" versus "That's enough," or "I'm rather well" versus "I'm well" imply different things. <br /><br />Another aspect of this relates to the social class of your characters: typically, more educated and higher class individuals hedge their statements with prefaces like "my understanding is..." or "one might assume..." especially in polite/social conversations.<br /><br />In the case of generic description by the author as narrator, I completely agree that the qualifiers and other such words are best removed. Keep it sparse and objective.Peter Charnellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10204152727626930933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-16637939496101152992015-02-07T00:06:56.872-05:002015-02-07T00:06:56.872-05:00Thanks for your kind words, Julie! I'm so glad...Thanks for your kind words, Julie! I'm so glad you find my craft tips and my Fire up Your Fiction book helpful! :-)Jodie Rennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180607353893233389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-20149713264310143922015-02-07T00:01:24.591-05:002015-02-07T00:01:24.591-05:00Jodie, I always love your craft tips! And your Fir...Jodie, I always love your craft tips! And your Fire Up Your Fiction book helped me shave lots of words of my last book, saving me $$ in editing. Plus, it helped make it a much leaner book.<br /><br />Right now I'm on draft three, and I just ditched an entire character. I don't miss her a bit :)Julie Musilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02150454913885915017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-91177952816953770452015-02-06T13:51:03.943-05:002015-02-06T13:51:03.943-05:00"I've also read reviews that say the read..."I've also read reviews that say the reader was sorry to come to the end, that he or she would happily have continued reading in the world the author created. A review like that tells us the reader was engaged and not in a hurry to get back to the video games and TV!"<br /><br />Exactly, Pharosian! That's my goal: to engage readers as previous authors have for me. And they did not need to word pad to get there; that's as insulting to a reader's intelligence as it is to say they can have a great experience on a truncated story for overhead reasons. Wrong.<br /><br />That said, I factored in costs in hard copy form, and I believe in my product enough I'm willing to offer a percentage of my earnings to costs. How many writers, even big name ones, do this? Not many--but then, talking about it holds no credibility, either. They very well could be, far as I know. But you're exactly right regarding e-books, a word count shouldn't be limited there. Unfortunately, those prices are creeping higher, too ... but that also could be a writer making that production earnings sacrifice on the back end. Everything in life's a trade-off.<br /><br />What a business, eh?<br /><br />Great reply. Thank you.M. K. Clarkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11071652624778221807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-58811010613016486802015-02-06T09:25:17.479-05:002015-02-06T09:25:17.479-05:00I agree with you, M.K.! I've seen many review...I agree with you, M.K.! I've seen many reviews on Amazon that complained of the ending feeling "rushed." I wonder if that sometimes happens in order to bring the word count into alignment with some arbitrary standard. (It could also simply indicate a lack of skill in handling the resolution of the book.)<br /><br />I've also read reviews that say the reader was sorry to come to the end, that he or she would happily have continued reading in the world the author created. A review like that tells us the reader was engaged and not in a hurry to get back to the video games and TV!<br /><br />Obviously, readers wanting "more" isn't license to pad the word count. But I think one of the key factors in setting that limit was the logistics of printing, shipping, and displaying printed books: the more pages in the book, the more expensive to print and ship, and the fewer that could be displayed. In today's world of e-books, this consideration no longer applies to the same extent.Pharosianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11014081280833695697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-15573931644846157362015-02-05T17:10:52.466-05:002015-02-05T17:10:52.466-05:00You make some excellent points, M.K.! Thanks for y...You make some excellent points, M.K.! Thanks for your thoughtful comments! :-)Jodie Rennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180607353893233389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-6945517358777633422015-02-05T17:09:35.482-05:002015-02-05T17:09:35.482-05:00Good to hear we're on the same wavelength, Ann...Good to hear we're on the same wavelength, Anna! :-)Jodie Rennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180607353893233389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-20290263458480134732015-02-05T16:53:35.617-05:002015-02-05T16:53:35.617-05:00Thanks for dropping by and commenting, Rosi. I'...Thanks for dropping by and commenting, Rosi. I'm glad you find my tips useful!Jodie Rennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180607353893233389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-31643192869351766192015-02-05T15:40:48.371-05:002015-02-05T15:40:48.371-05:00Jodie,
Your post was fantastic and I found a few ...Jodie,<br /><br />Your post was fantastic and I found a few excellent points to implement changes in my first novel (presently a complicated plot sitting at 141K). But I have to disagree on part of this post: what you'd said about a writer having to "earn their stripes." <br /><br />Terry Brooks, the author of SOMETIMES THE MAGIC WORKS, said that a book is the cheapest investment for the largest chunk of time. It makes the person slow down his world to enter another one. Cable, game systems, the Internet, etc., are abandoned for the tale in his or her hands he or she is about to dive into (paraphrasing mine). He's right, IMO; if you devise a story so compelling and hooking from the onset, you won't notice the time passing, or its length.<br /><br />This isn't to disagree with you in cutting excess wordage, dead scenes, doorstop characters, repeated information; I whole-heartedly agree. But ... if you've done all this, read it through, it's as tight as it can be without "stripping the threads," how can something coming in over 100K be so terrible? Why can't fiction be meatier despite the other distractions? Why use the excuse to rush a reader through a story because we're in a faster society; isn't a book forcing their attention span to stay in one place, if the story's told as it should be? And who said from the onset a newbie writer should write tight before writing long? Even some established authors have written works so wordy, rambling, ranting and the like, that, with the exception of their loyal fans, other readers quit reading them; this is all over the Internet in many examples (I won't name-drop, though. *grin*). Earned stripes or not, it smacks of a double standard, and one perpetuated at that. Argue as one may, but it just does. <br /><br />I contend if a writer sets herself from the onset this is the stories' length (and no higher or lower), the readers may feel cheated if, on the next book, she gives them less or expect them to hang on her every unnecessary, can-be-cut word for more. Also, what about books written long ago some HS kids today are expected to read; aren't those longer than a set word count, too? <br /><br />Maybe I'm not seeing something in this mix, and I may be put on blast for sharing this view. But before today, no one's given me a valid explanation why one needs to earn their stripes to justify a longer work, when it's the story itself worthy of that time to begin with. Liken this to a little kid going after the prize on a quest after he'd been laughed at by his village for being too small, too young, not experienced, etc. He returned with the prize. Nobody laughed anymore.<br /><br />Great post, even though we might agree to disagree agreeably on the points above. I'll definitely implement some of these solid tips in my present WIP that'll reflect a lower count. M. K. Clarkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11071652624778221807noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-15422094111055808972015-02-05T15:16:51.611-05:002015-02-05T15:16:51.611-05:00This is a really rich post with so much useful inf...This is a really rich post with so much useful information. Thanks! I needed that!Rosihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01294774973863802821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-73914849704430774852015-02-05T15:05:35.113-05:002015-02-05T15:05:35.113-05:00Some great advice here. I"ve been doing this ...Some great advice here. I"ve been doing this on my current draft. AMDobritthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15904793451903536831noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3901370917824739259.post-43826521982627391942015-02-05T11:43:34.740-05:002015-02-05T11:43:34.740-05:00Thanks so much for inviting me to post on your fab...Thanks so much for inviting me to post on your fabulous blog, Janice! I send my editing clients here all the time to read the spot-on advice for writers here! <br /><br />This morning I have to drive for an hour, spend a few hours looking at condos to buy, then drive back, so I'll only be online sporadically until this afternoon. But I'll definitely check in later!Jodie Rennerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17180607353893233389noreply@blogger.com