Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

The Rambling Story Part 1: Why rambling is bad for your book and what you can do about it so your book doesn’t go on and on and on…

December 17, 2009 at 12:25 pm katemorgan1 Leave a comment

Let’s pretend for a moment that you ramble on and on when you write. Your writing style consists mainly of long flowing descriptions of scenery and weather, intricate details about each character and flowery dialogue that goes on for pages.

Unless you’re writing epic poems (and even then there are limits when it comes to readability) or you’re Charles Dickens (who never met a period he actually liked) rambling should not be your friend. Rambling, particularly in novels, slows your story down and leads to reader confusion and loss of interest.

Think about your own reading experiences. Do you actually like reading huge blocks of text in novels? No, I didn’t think so. Thank goodness for dialogue in books or else there would be a lot of books out there I would have skimmed my entire way through, if I even finished at all.

Breaking up those big blocks of descriptive text is not easy. You may feel tied to those scenery descriptions that mention every cloud and flower for miles. You wonder, “How else am I supposed to describe her hair that shimmered and glistened with golden light in the bright afternoon sun beaming in through the sparkling windows?”

For the sake of your book and your readers, learn to be concise. Trust your readers to know what you mean when you say “her golden hair” rather than use the description above. Granted, there may genuinely be times in your writing that you need a lengthy description of a scene. However, in those few times, limit yourself to only writing about the most crucial elements and use dialogue and narration from your characters to fill in the rest. Learning how to write good dialogue will help you cut back on rambling descriptions and move your story along

Admitting that you have a rambling problem is the first step in learning how to be more concise. Then, be ruthless with your writing. Examine every sentence, every word if you must, to ensure that everything fits together and aids the progress of your story

Have you examined rambling in your writing? Share your own tips for being concise in our comments section. And, check back tomorrow for The Rambling Story Part 2: Six Word Memoirs. Could you write your life story in six words?

Happy (concise) writing,

Kate

Entry filed under: Writing. Tags: concise writing, writing tips.