A Sketch Ain’t Worth a Thousand Words

[scribblemyname]

So I just remembered/realized why I love writing flash fiction and have such a hard time getting it to pass muster with my awesome, wonderful, incredibly stick-me-to-it beta: I write sparse. Always have; probably always will. Oh, joy.

In short, I’m one of those odd and rare writers that sketches in a story and, if I’m wise enough to not consider it done, fill it in later. This usually takes a lot of filling and it’s a pain in the butt and I’m often bored with the exercise long before the exercise is bored with me. Cue beta shipping it back to me with a note telling me to “Bake it longer, chica.” :headdesk:

This is also probably where my major problem with novel-writing is coming from, and it certainly stems from all my time mucking around in fandom where I can play off a certain set of standard assumptions. I’ll be the first to admit (in fact, I already did somewhere) that “Crossing the Barrier” could have been deepened quite a bit. I was nowhere near ready to tackle that kind of work though, didn’t have enough interest in the story left to want to, and knew that the story worked without it. So I didn’t. It probably would have been good practice.

What about you? Do you write long or short? Do you have to layer in details later or trim the fat?

Originally published at Liana Mir. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[trovia.livejournal.com]

I write both. My style seems to be pretty compatible with all lengths. Though I do try to keep it... efficient (if anything, I probably write too little when I should have spent more time on explaining it. But in many cases, it's more of a matter of "I should have laid this out step by step, in individual scenes, instead of expecting the audience to just get the development instinctively. That's more of a plot problem than a style problem). I enjoy a good visual, a good description, but I'm careful about interrupting my story for description. The best experiences I've had as a beta have been with writers who feel that they're too verbose. Because I'm ruthless about cutting, and I'll cross out anything from a single adjective to a whole chapter. Cutting makes me happy, be it my own fic or other people's. It makes me feel strangely accomplished.

Would you mind some constructive criticism? I'd been looking at your ebooks on Amazon. I haven't read any yet, but I noticed that your summaries gave me trouble. I didn't get a full enough idea of what kind of story I'm about to purchase, considering this is Amazon where you get all kinds of stories in all kinds of genres about any number of things. What's the genre? What's this universe this is set in, that gets mentioned? Does this mean I should read another story first? Maybe you might want to keep an eye on that? Keeping in mind people who know nothing about your writing but the summary of a given story. People might decide not to buy it because they don't get a good enough idea of whether this would interest them. :) And that would be a shame. Also a problem of sparse writing, right?

[scribblemyname]

Love constructive criticism, even if I sometimes hate the reality that I need it. (I AM human.) I can write a basic summary for a lot of things, but lately, it's been about a hundred times harder than usual, and I have always had a strong tendency to at least just get something done and out there!

Thanks for letting me know. That IS something I need to fix pronto. I know from experience the difference the right cover or summary can make.

I'm thinking I'm going to need to hire a summary writer, even if it's only with free copies and fanfiction or hugs on the side!