Pruning

While I agree that there are some writers and some stories that I find to verbose, I disagree that all writers should prune. In fact I wish that my favourite writers were more verbose. In almost every case their stories are made special because of those vivid descriptions and little references which are strictly not a part of the story but help to provide an immersive 'feel' to the story; either in a historical setting, a fantasy, foreign country, alternate society etc.

For me it isn't possible to have too much of quality!
People who think the opposite remind me of the English Teacher who turned me off from writing when at school. I was asked to write a poem of a certain length and struggled with cutting it down while still including all I wanted to say. When I got it back after marking it had the comment that a longer version might be suitable for the school magazine.

This infuriated me and made me decide never to put in that much effort again!

So to author of longer pieces I say this: the discerning reader will always appreciate quality (the more the better) and so unless you actually get comments saying that a story is verbose or too long, don't doubt your storytelling instincts.

Robert Jordan never pruned - and I had to stop reading his novels because there were too many wasted words.

I must admit I have never been very good at pruning, but then I try hard not to be too verbose in the first place. When I come back to my stories after some time, I occasionally see things that could have been pruned, and they are usually of the "kill your darlings" kind - typically phrases I had thought out beforehand that turned out to be much too heavy or too "clever" for the story. But just as often I see scenes I should have fleshed out more to give the story a proper balance - in my case typically the spanking scenes that I hate to write!

I know I'm too verbose so I always re-read the story and cull out at least several hundred unnecessary words before submitting it. It's an even bigger challenge writing LSF novels because they prefer them to be in the approximate 25-28k word range. My first draft is usually 32-33k words and then the bludgeoning begins...

@mj2001
25-28k words for an ebook? Seriously? You mean they let me ramble on for an extra 3k words without stopping me? This is outrageous! Where's my pruning hook?

Robert Jordan was an interesting case, especially when you consider that his wife was an editor. Fantasy writers in general seem to have issues keeping the word count manageable. Steven Erikson and Brandon Sanderson spring to mind and George Martin (on the rare occasion he actually publishes something) is going down that route as well. I blame the word processor, its just too easy to spew words forth on a screen.

If you were around when word processors replaced typewriters then you could tell when each of your favorite writers made the switch. Gone was the hard discipline required by a typewriter - where each correction required you type over with one of those white stripes and extra words meant scribbling them in and then retyping that chapter.

Glen Cook had the biggest change, or maybe his readership had expanded to the point where the publishers wanted a higher word count. The entire Glittering Stone sub series feels a bit bloated at times, especially considering it was supposed to be a single novel.

That may also have coincided with when Glen gave up full time 9 - 5 to write for a living.

As a non author my take on the matter is, different strokes for different folks.

Some readers do not want the build up, in depth scene setting etc they just want to get to the 'ouchie' bit of the tale, skipping over the non ouchie bits, so might like the non ouchies pruned.

Wheras i personally like the psychology between the particiants, some of my favourite stories here on LSF, have yes had painful ouchies for the characters, but majority of the story has been illustrating of the environment, scene setting, describing of the power play & non spanking interactions, word pictures that draw me in, but i realise others might view these stories as long winded and just want to get to the pruned action.

The fine authors here on LSF cultivate well & know what to prune and what to leave, being the spanking version of horticulturists.

No - he was still working. He was at that auto plant until the day he retired - because he didn't want to have to try to live off his writing (plus health care and other benefits). He was only 52 when the first volume of Glittering Stone came out.

Speaking about him - he recently published a new Black Company book - one set between The Black Company and Shadows Linger, with an explanation for why no one really remembers much about that story... Well half of it is set then, the other half is mostly set in the Domination (much like the letters about the rise of Lady and the Ten in The White Rose). If you haven't stumbled over it, run out and read it now.