Less IS More & Cliches

It is a cliche grudgingly acknowledged that a crazed writer in possession of a strict deadline, must be in want of a shower.

I don’t have much time to blog this morning. I’m about to lunch with some of my most favorite people on earth. Typing “lunch” as a verb feels very pretentious to me. It was a mistake. LET US NEVER SPEAK OF IT AGAIN. So, I need to get ready in a couple minutes, but before I do, I’d like to discuss the solution to many Writing Problems, specifically plot blocks.

I mean the bad kind of block, where you don’t really know where the scene is going. I had that this morning. This was not a good morning for a snare, since I have less time today to work.

For the last several hours, I’ve tried to hold back the tide of Inevitability with my hands. All the groundwork from the last two books, regarding a certain plot point, converged to create this really creepy atmosphere for the scene I’m drafting. Now, I’m all for creepy when it’s what I want to evoke. Creepy, for this scene, was not my intent.

Then as I was hemming and hawing (and complaining to Twitter), I realized a brilliant solution to the problem. Instead of increasing the complexity of the moment to banish the creepiness, I pulled way back and simplified. That’s the take away, gentle readers. Simplify.

I always have this seeming compulsion to make things more complicated in my writing, and after twisting and turning it like an uncooperative Rubik’s Cube, the solution is, more times than not, to simplify. Whether its prose that’s knotted or a plot point trying to strangle itself (not pretty AND counterproductive), the best way to fix writing that’s not working is to simplify.

By simplifying this scene, I created a sturdy foundation for the development of an ongoing plot thread, for plot and character development regarding a major throughline in this book, and for character development for a specific person. I may not have gotten many words done today, but I paved clearer path moving forward.

By going for less, I got more. This is a truth, folks. It’s a cliche that less is more, but, REALLY, it is in writing. Prune back that purple prose. Streamline your throughlines. Less IS more.

©2010-2012 ~Cheese-Demon

Since I’m doing my version of a classics mad libs to begin each blogging sessions, I’ve decided to make a game of it for you, gentle readers. There are two aspects to the game. The first is guessing which first line of classic Literature my mad lib comes from. The second is using the mad libs I’ve created (which I will include at the bottom of the post) to do your own. You can post your guesses and your mad libs in the comments. Let the games begin!

06.22.12 Progress:

1. Blogged about simplifying your writing.
2. Haven’t read yet. I'm not doing so well on this front, because I'm used to denying my desire to read in order to get other work done. >_<
3. Yoga’d (hatha if you’re interested)
4. 574 words drafted. A bit pathetic, but I did overcome a major problem in a scene that was turning oddly creepy. And introduced the groundwork for later conflict between a few characters. Mwah. Ha. Ha.

Mad Lib for 06.22.12:

It is a NOUN ADVERB acknowledged that a ADJECTIVE PERSON in possession of ADJECTIVE NOUN, must be in want of a NOUN.