#‘‘What’s a movie star need a rocket for anyway?’’ Eddie Valentine asks as he leaves (closing out the scene) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

corellianhounds · 2 months ago

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My hot take of the day: The encouragement that “Word count doesn’t indicate quality” is true, but I’d take it a step further to say some of those long fics could also stand to be edited down

The purpose of achieving a high word count in a day’s worth of writing is so that you have more material to sift through to find the good stuff. You don’t have to put everything into the finished/posted fic or chapter, and oftentimes your themes and pacing and plot points are going to be a lot punchier and more effective if they’ve been whittled down to what’s best for the story

#And yeah fanfic by nature is meant to be indulgent #But if you’re using it as your means of improving your writing that’s just a bit of advice I’d give #writing #hounds speaks #Not that you can’t put everything in. It’s just sometimes harder to figure out what the author is trying to say or put emphasis on #When everything is clamoring for the same amount of attention #I say this as somebody whose interior design preferences lean towards maximalism #but I rein some of it back to put emphasis on certain things #Because if everything’s important then none of it’s important #And people aren’t liable to linger on the crucial details as long #This is why I consider my writing style more like a prospector #Instead of an architect or gardener #Nothing prompted this I was just thinking about how many stories I’ve read that have exposition and character sheet dumps #as a means of getting those details in #When they really aren’t necessary and don’t always add something to the story #My own pet peeve when it comes to stories is the overuse of narration. Don’t tell me everything a character is thinking all the time #Adjacent advice: Your characters don’t have to immediately answer every question they’re asked in a scene #What a character DOESN’T do or say is sometimes just as important as what they do #‘‘What’s a movie star need a rocket for anyway?’’ Eddie Valentine asks as he leaves (closing out the scene)#It creates more intrigue when you DON’T tell me all of it up front

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