Quote:
Originally Posted by crich70
And yet if you cut an ending too much you risk cutting your own financial throat as well. People want to know what happened to the characters that they've spent time and many pages learning about. I know if a book is too boiled down at its ending I may put it down with the thought to avoid that author's work in the future. There is telling and there is showing. Showing takes more words but it is far, far more satisfying to me as a reader.
Example:
John was angry. (Telling) We learn the character's name and that he's angry.
John stomped into the room slamming the door behind him. Grabbing up the whiskey decanter he splashed a generous amount into a tumbler not caring that more ended up on the table than in the glass. He tossed the liquor back and then threw the empty glass at the fireplace with an oath. "Damn her! Damn her to hell!" (Showing)
The 2nd version is longer but we get a better idea of how angry John is. Likewise at the end of a novel the author can show what happens to the characters or he/she can summarize what happens. If I want a summary of a book I'll look for the cliff notes edition of the story not the story itself.
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Well, lol...if I pick up a book (nowadays, look at the LITB [Look Inside the Book]) and I see
telling, I'm outta there. I mean, people can rave about the freedom of self-pubbing, and all that, but one good result of the old system was, I never had to fear that I'd actually end up with a book that was TELLING. That's simply unacceptable. I mean, Christ, it's Cardinal Rule of Writing 101, isn't it?
I, too, have seen an unfortunate number of books that do just that, since the advent of large-scale self-pubbing. I've also seen Info Dumps, aka, Exposition. And, bizarrely, a CRAPLOAD of books that start with info dumps--not with dialogue, or action, or ANYTHING that might entice you into reading.
I'm old school, having cut my teeth on the classics and all that, and I'm not allergic to longer, slow openings, but by god, it takes a decent writer to do that and still get me to read it. Most are simply horrid examples of "why the gatekeepers still matter."
My $.02, FWIW.
Hitch