Young Writers Society

Wordiness!

O the evils. Verbosity, wordiness, long-windedness, (isaacasimovity?) - whatever you want to call it, things still turn out the same. You've got a page that is one great big block of print, that uses an awsul lot of words and conveys very little.

(For the record, 'you' is 'me'. ^_^ Mind-boggling, I know.)

So! The Question:

How do I write what I need to write without it getting bogged down in a deluge of run-on sentences and thick, heavy wording?

You get a cookie if you can help me out with this. ^_~

Very verbose, DD...but you don't tend to run-on too much. ^_~

Write it all as it comes; then go over it, reading, and tear out every repetition and all reiteration that has no dramatic point. Of course, that sounds rather more simple than it might be. Sentence structure can add to the confusion.

Sometimes a mental tidying can help as well, before you begin writing. Silence and a clear image of what you mean to say can do wonders for not saying too much and more than you need to.

(Nietzche doesn't help either. ^_~)

A cookie for Imp! ^_^

And dear God, please tell me that the bit about Nietzche is from the Fiction Discussion and not Lyric Poery... o.O

Anyway! It's good advice and a good plan. I'll try that. Thanks a lot. ^_~

Dream Deep wrote:A cookie for Imp! ^_^

And dear God, please tell me that the bit about Nietzche is from the Fiction Discussion and not Lyric Poery... o.O

Anyway! It's good advice and a good plan. I'll try that. Thanks a lot. ^_~

I'll have to disappoint. `-`'' 'Tis from Poetry--though I noticed the Fiction Discussion mention as well.

I noticed in The Chair you had these long-drawn sentences and it did meddle with my mind. I suggest reading through whatever needs changing and writing down different sentences that basically say the same thing without becoming too wordy/confusing.

Did that help?

Thanks Myth. ^_^

Poor Imp wrote:

Dream Deep wrote:A cookie for Imp! ^_^

And dear God, please tell me that the bit about Nietzche is from the Fiction Discussion and not Lyric Poery... o.O

Anyway! It's good advice and a good plan. I'll try that. Thanks a lot. ^_~

I'll have to disappoint. `-`'' 'Tis from Poetry--though I noticed the Fiction Discussion mention as well.

O.O *kills self with fork* You'll notice how you have this great knack for finding and reading my less than brilliant ramblings... *coughs*Pop Culture*coughs*

^_~

Nietzche helps everyone!

Except stupid people

Of course, you don't *have* to keep your writing simple: one of the best authors I've had the priviledge of reading is Stephen Donaldson - his vocabulary is just completely out there in the regions of super-dictionary world and some of his sentences are practically paragraphs. But that doesn't take away from the story! It's still just as good; you just have to make sure that you use punctuation effectively and extensively, and try and make sure the context helps the reader grasp what the harder words mean.



Keep it up, D, everyone loves you! XD

Hi Dream Deep,


I saw this after the comments regarding your Nietzsche-based poem, and in my mind this connects that to it. So for all intents, I'll assume you want to tighten your language in poetry--not prose (prose is a different beast, by far).

First, the importance of tight language and structure is that it facilitates an understanding and control between you and your piece, and as readers, we notice when authors truly "know" what they want to say and when they are cluttering the page trying to "get" at what they mean to say. While idiomatic expressions are sometimes favored, they are often lacking this tightness--avoid them.

It might be best, really, if you just did some exercises with your old poems: return to them, ask "How can this be shortened? Do I really need that word?" etc. You will generally find words like "just" are unnecessary for the completion of meaning.

Take some time and try it out; if you need help, I'll be glad to offer my assistance.


All the best,
Brad

backgroundbob wrote:Nietzche helps everyone!

Except stupid people

Of course, you don't *have* to keep your writing simple: one of the best authors I've had the priviledge of reading is Stephen Donaldson - his vocabulary is just completely out there in the regions of super-dictionary world and some of his sentences are practically paragraphs. But that doesn't take away from the story! It's still just as good; you just have to make sure that you use punctuation effectively and extensively, and try and make sure the context helps the reader grasp what the harder words mean.



Keep it up, D, everyone loves you! XD

Hah! LIES! ^_~ But no, thanks Bob. And Stephen Donaldson? As in the fellow who wrote The Gap Into Conflict? Oy, he's an amazing writer. Good advice - thanks again.

Incan - Muahahaha, I haev duped you. Lol, my focus was the Chair, not poetry... I don't spend enough time on poetry to do a lot of re-writes, but thank you very much for your suggestions anyway.