No really, chocolate is good for you. Dark chocolate can even help you lose weight.
But as with all good things, for the above to be true chocolate should be eaten in small quantities. That means those small quantities had better be good.
The same can be said about writing.
A lot of excess words can help bulk out word count and make you feel good about your work. But it can also make your manuscript overweight, unwieldy and a hard slog for readers get through.
Scenes, paragraphs, and sentences should be pared down and always be working to move the story forward in a logical manner. A good way for testing this with a piece of writing is to read it aloud. If it flows well while speaking it, then it should flow well while reading it.
I’m not going to say that I am the perfect writer that does everything correctly, and never use too many words to get my point across. If fact I am the opposite (as can be seen from this post). I love words and like to use as many of them as possible. But as with eating too much chocolate, I know that in the long run too many words will be a bad thing for the story.
Now, I’m not going to tell you how to write like this, just as I’m not going to tell you what chocolate to eat. That is up to each individual to decide. Everyone has their particular brand of chocolate, and everyone has their own writing style.
Ultimately it is up to you to decide what stays, what goes, and what chocolate to eat.
Happy chocolate munching
-HMC
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