Trimming the fat

ana muses on telling the story.

I read a post on a self-publishing loop by Marie Force, the prolific author and million-indie books seller. She commented about her writing style, saying her background as a journalist conditioned her to skip frills when describing scenes in her stories. She opens with action, uses lots of dialogue, describes characters minimally. And no backstory.

I was struck by how different this is from the classics I read in school and how I was "instructed" to write.  Times change, though, and only time awards a book with the 'Classic' label. I need to write to sell.

With that in mind, I think I will cut my first scene yet again. Open with "active" action, and reveal my hero's motivation through more dialogue.


Flaubert wrote: "It is a delicious thing to write, to be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating. Today, for instance, as man and woman, both lover and mistress, I rode in a forest on an autumn afternoon under the yellow leaves, and I was also the horses, the leaves, the wind, the words my people uttered, even the red sun that made them almost close their love-drowned eyes."