Sometimes you have to know when to just give something a rest and a rethink.
I was merrily pounding on my keyboard a story for the flash fiction prompt I posted earlier, having quickly developed an idea earlier in the day — when I came to a sudden impasse.
Two things went wrong.
My imperfect memory of the geography of Seattle was partly to blame. The light rail system did not exist when I lived there and my planned story relied on several elements that were just not the reality of the situation on the ground. When I grew suspicious I checked out a few details and caught that flaw.
That was a hurdle I probably could have overcome. Just change assumptions to fit the real world geography and modify a few words here and there. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.
It was the second problem that caused the bigger issue: I had barely begun the actual tale and I was already close to the half-way mark of my self-imposed 2000-word limit. If I’m being brutally honest with myself, there was far too much exposition for a flash fiction style story. Enough so that I should dump what I wrote and get to the story part and leave the world-building to when I am not trying to write flash fiction.
I believe that the point of writing flash fiction and shorter works is to force an author to pay closer attention to word economy. This evening’s efforts might have worked out better as a true short story (up to 20k words, but generally averaging closer to 10k words) if I wanted to retain those world-building ideas. Thing is: those elements are not essential to the story, only to my own understanding of the story elements. They add zilch to the plot. The reader doesn’t need to know the contents of my exposition to understand the story I had planned on telling. Those detail add spice and inform me, but detract from the core narrative.
Well, Michael… do you consider it a wasted hour? No. I learned a valuable lesson today: that it is easy to get caught up in description, back-story, and those non-narrative elements, dragging down your story as a result. I knew that before I started writing tonight but this was a good time to reinforce that. Sure, excessive exposition often gets caught in editing. By challenge design, however, I am not dedicating much or any time to revisions.
The end result is that I am happy I discovered this before I crossed my word-count threshold because I can now refocus myself on telling the better tale once I clear the clutter in my head (unless tomorrow’s prompt is more compelling to pursue).
20 responses to “Stupid exposition…”
I’ve never aspired to writing flash fiction but I do approve of word economy. I’ve read far too many books which are far too long, and which if well-edited would be only half the length – and when I had some editorial training I found out ways of doing that. You’re aware of what wasn’t working today, so learned a great lesson, as you note. Best of luck with redoing the work with better focus. 😊
I think flash fiction is a great tool for learning those kinds of skills. Nanofiction/Twitterfiction even more so. There’s a lot of story that can be told in 280 characters, as I discovered when I was doing it more often. 😂
But yes, less is sometimes more. I’m often skeptical that a novel needs to be more than 500 pages in length. And trilogies can often be easily condensed to a single book. But why sell one book when you can sell three?
I’m sure you’re aware of one of the discussions, which frequently does the rounds of the writer groups on social media, concerning the ideal length of a book. For me, a story is as long as it needs to be; but sometimes writers don’t get that, and pad like crazy. I knew somebody once who, like my late mother-in-law, never used one word when twenty would do. I read his books as a friend, but they drove me crazy. I don’t much like books over about 350 pages tops anyway, and his were well into the 600-page sphere; however, if well-edited they could have been less than half of that, and much better for it. I’d better stop, as I’m on the verge of a rant, and you don’t deserve that. But respect to you for working on the subtle art of saying so much more by saying so much less (and your poems do that to a great extent). 🙂
Rant away 😂
I agree about book length. Epic is not always better unless you are telling a damn ripping tale while you’re at it. Even the book I’m stuck on, though… I enjoyed it but it is too much ripping yarn and missing depth to carry things to a deeper level. It would probably be a better tale if it got to the point already. But everyone is clever and there’s action all around. 350 pages would probably improve it. Less action. Less clever. But tighter and feeling less rambling.
Thanks!
You’re welcome. I get exactly what you mean. 😊
Save it for later, when you’re ready for a 10,000 word commitment? I’m partial to flash fiction that’s around 100 words. I suck at it, but it’s still fun to write every once in a while.
I went through a spell of microfiction and nanofiction. You really learn how to economize your words in that genre of writing.
This feels like it would feel too bloated with anything more than 5000 words and I strongly feel it will be better if I pursue a leaner story with a tighter word count over giving myself license to write more. Constraint is my friend. 😊
🤔
I know, I have weird and uncommon notions about such things.
Hey… what ever works. 😉
Yes, I completely understand what you’re saying here, Michael. When I write I do like a bit of description, but my aim is always to to try to keep it relevant to the specific moment (‘the bruised clouds stared down’ is, imo, better than a 300 word exposition on the sky, as it pertains to a key moment with just enough menace and intrigue (although I could be wrong!)). Similarly back-story is probably best alluded to, rather than detailed – how much does it really add to the unfolding events?
As an aside I’ve decided to challenge myself to produce a ‘book’s worth’ (whatever that might mean) of short pieces focused on the theme of water. I may well post some bits over the coming weeks. Take that as a threat!
Thanks, I know that my stance on writing is unconventional so it is good to see some agreement from someone outside of my mushy head. History lessons and backstory tend to unnecessarily drag out a scene in my opinion. Fine for worldbuilding, but hard on the narrative pacing.
Hmm…
“Be like water, my friend” (Bruce Lee).
Color me interested. Why water?
Oh, and you don’t scare me. You just need some cuddles. 🤗
I’m liking the Bruce Lee quote. Might be a better place if we all aspired to that.
As for the water theme I wanted to try to set a loose restriction in an attempt to focus my writing. Water, as an idea, seemed to have enough possibilities to keep the ideas interesting and not (hopefully) end up stagnating. Sorry about the pun!
We shall see…
Whatever floats man 😂
🤣
Sorry. My own puns are pretty terrible. LOL
It’s always so tempting to tell all the images when they start pouring out of my head, but there’s a lot to be said for brevity. I tend to overdo it, and I’ve often found that the more I can remove from a finished story the better it is.
I know right? I sometimes need to step back and say… Wait… Is this the story or me just thinking it is story. When I do that, I realize it is not story at all, just mind barf. Great insights from the master storyteller here! Thanks.
But still write it down-sometimes there’s little gems in there that you’re gonna want to use and will be glad you have!
True. That’s why it wasn’t a waste of time. It helped me understand the characters better.