Story Length

[sekiharatae]

I've had a few reviews on ff.net about sequels or longer versions and it's got me pondering...

I really have to try in order to generate a one-shot that's more than say a thousand words long.  As Shakespeare put it:  Brevity is the soul of wit.  Or, another quote I've happened upon that I also favor:  It is with words as with sunbeams.  The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.  ~Robert Southey

Maybe I'll put that on my ff.net profile...

But perhaps brevity is better saved for public speaking and not narrative.  In which case I definitely have a problem!

Nine times out of ten if I end up writing something longer, it's because I went back and added to what I originally wrote... and it feels like what it is:  padding.  At least to me.  Maybe not to you.

*insert thoughtful frowny face here*

I'm geek enough to perform an experiment now...

Comments

[sutekilts.livejournal.com]

I really have trouble with that.
I write a chapter/oneshot, and when I'm finished I realise that maybe it's too short, but I've already told everything I had/wanted to. Then I try to add something else, make it longer, but it feels like I'm just adding fillers, and I know that if I was the one reading, I would skip it :/

I always try to keep it around 1300 words, but it gets really tough sometimes. Same as when the chapter/oneshot ends up being twice as long as expected.

That said, I think that if the text is clear and the idea reaches the reader, then it shouldn't be extended. But, that's my opinion. And I prefer quality over quantity.

As frequent reader (even if not reviewer for lack of time), I say you're doing fine ^^

[sekiharatae.livejournal.com]

I write a chapter/oneshot, and when I'm finished I realise that maybe it's too short, but I've already told everything I had/wanted to.

This is pretty much it exactly!

[quoth-the-ravyn.livejournal.com]

Pssh. What I would give for my muse to let me keeps things short. It's a force of will to write out snippets of a story instead of you know, pages . Heck, I picked up 100 Situations as a Drabble challenge and most of them are averaging about 10 pages.

I think my question about the padding is: when you write, do you just put it all on paper and then go back in and re-organize, add detail and clean things up, or do you generally write until its perfect and then move on? I've found those who write until its perfect are not so happy with adding on later as those of us who just write it all out and then go back and fix what doesn't make sense or needs detail. (In my five minutes of considering the people I write with...)

I think you will find we are just greedy, greedy people. Hence why we want more of what you do. Its brilliant, what you give us, so of course we automatically assume that you can translate that brilliance into longer pieces. But I know for me? I'm just happy as a lark to get whatever you feed us. =)

[sekiharatae.livejournal.com]

When I write, it's usually at the computer in the word processor, and I can be stuck on a sentence or paragraph for excessive amounts of time until I'm happy with it. So I guess I write until I feel it's perfect.

Perfectionism gets me a lot. ^^;

[quoth-the-ravyn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I don't have the perfectionist bug for the first couple of drafts. Perfectly happy writing out a rough, rough version of what I want and butchering it later if that is what it needs. Nothing wrong with being a perfectionist! And your stuff is always lovely, so no complaints on our end for it at all!

[km-anderson.livejournal.com]

Don't mind me and my late-ass comments, I've been hiding under my rock again. Seems you've been doing a lot of writer-navel-gazing lately, and because I'm (a) lazy and (b) unwilling to spam your inbox, I'll just leave my collective rambling opinions 2 cents here.

Word count: I'd much rather read 20 short pieces than 20 pages of filler with a paragraph of story. Hell, 100 words from you are worth more than 1000 from some people.

Said-bookisms: "Writing manuals be damned," she muttered. The end.

Logic: It occurs to me that whoever wrote that needs to find a better beta.

Purple prose: Unless you start referring to Cloud's quivering love-sword and Tifa's fragrant rose of femininity, I think you're good.

Pants: I keep over-thinking stuff like that with weapons. In an original fantasy universe, a narrow, curved, single-edged sword is a... what? Sabre, scimitar, cutlass, katana, curvy-slicy-thing?

ps: David Eddings = Hells, yes. I still want to be Polgara when I grow up. Or Poledra. Or Porenn or Layla or Velvet or Taiba or...