|
I come from the computer/technical world and have done a lot of programming, so being long winded, and highly descriptive comes into play there a LOT. Especially since you always have to tell the computer EXACTLY to the letter what you want it to do. I remember in the early days taking up to five chapters to describe a 5 minute action scene. Now I can take a half hour battle and cram it into two paragraphs if need be. The simple solution was a suggestion by a forum member on another writing site. He said, "Tell only what they absolutely need to know. If they don't need to know it, don't tell it, period, no matter how awesome you think it sounds. If it's not directly relative to the story or the narrative, it's dead weight." I forget what the guy's name was, but at the time he was on the NYT best seller list, so I listened. ^_^
|