Cut The Fluff!
Posted under: I believe You.
That scene you love and adore? It’s beautiful. It’s entertaining. It was fun to write and it’s fun to read.
But
Just because it’s beautiful and entertaining is not reason enough to keep it in your book.
Scenes MUST also be important. They must move the plot forward or provide a valuable piece of characterization. (Characterization you’ve already hammered home in another scene does not count as valuable).
A Not So Extreme Example
I was talking with my Wavewriter’s group and circumstanced found me summarizing a book I’d read where the PREMISE was neat (dystopian future, main characters were all drug addicts for a drug that looked like a feather. When you put the feather on your tongue, you experienced a pre-programmed “high”) and the PLOT was interesting (the main character’s sister did a particular feather and then disappeared) but the book was mostly fluff and worldbuilding.
So MUCH fluff that the main character didn’t even get confirmation that the drug was related to his sister’s disappearance until the VERY end of the book. I assume the writer was trying to build suspense for the second novel (which was also published) but so much of the first book was spent on … nothing. I can’t even remember what most of it was about, except that there were a lot of different drug trips in it and some running from the cops.
Had the book STARTED with the brother realizing he could save his sister, but he might lose himself at the same time – it would have been much stronger and more powerful.
As it was, although I wanted to know what happened, I didn’t want to don my mud boots and slog through another book like the first in order to get there.
Art
To the author, that worldbuilding was probably part of the ART of the book. He was clearly painting a portrait rather than focusing on telling a story.
I read this book a very long time ago, so the fact that I remember it at all speaks for his writing ability and the strength of the premise.
Unfortunately, all that got lost in a haze of FLUFF so thick I couldn’t find my way out of it.
A Picture Example
You want your stories to look more like this :
Than this :
Think of the bunnies, people!
Cut the fluff.
STILL laughing, and I knew what was coming! <3
.-= Steve – Kestrel's Aerie´s last blog ..Windows Live Writer Beta =-.
@Steve
*grins* <3
I was almost expecting a “kill your darlings” post, but it turned into bunnies!
I’m definitely still working on my own bunny infestation…
.-= Charlie Hills´s last blog ..PerBoWriQua =-.
@Charlie
My favorite bit of advice along these lines isn’t “kill your darlings” (which is very similar, but can be misleading), it’s “I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” ~Elmore Leonard
.-= Tami´s last blog ..Cut The Fluff! =-.