McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
When is wordy just too wordy?
Starbeam:
Correcting myself--Dickens was paid by installment, not by word. But still makes people think he overwrote when he should've ended stories.
--- Quote from: Snowleopard on June 21, 2011, 03:14:13 PM ---And not much per word either.
--- End quote ---
This still holds true today. Most of what I've seen from magazines is that they pay anywhere from around $.02 to maybe $.08 per word. I might've seen one that paid $.10, but I'm not certain.
Paynesgrey:
Which brings to mind the burden of convincing a periodical editor that your words are worth that few pennies each compared to a competing author .... "who's words will bring us more subscriptions..."
I'm not saying that trying to be Dumas is an inherently bad way to write, just that it's not the most practical approach if one's a new author seeking to get published rather than writing purely for their own gratification.
I do find myself chuckling at the many young aspiring writers over the last century plus who've emulated the style of Dumas and Dickens because they thought it represented the Truth Of The Art, The Noble High Calling, when the poor bastards wrote that way because they were just trying to make the rent and needed to fluff up their submissions. To be fair, common speech and correspondence were More Wordier in those times, but it's still kind of funny.
mrkleve:
--- Quote from: Paynesgrey on June 10, 2011, 06:25:12 PM ---For some examples of evocative, atmospheric writing that still carries the story, I'd suggest Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and John D. MacDonald's Darker Than Amber. It's the sort of writing where you can smell the wet pavement but the story and characters aren't overwhelmed.
--- End quote ---
Agreed! I have NEVER thought that MacDonald was wordy.
Starbeam:
Another side to look at it is to use Mote in God's Eye as an example. Pretty sure that's the title-Larry Niven and someone else, I think. They were told that they had to cut out something like 10-15%, and they went through the novel and pared down each chapter by something like 5-10% and have since said that the book still sells and gives them quite a bit of royalties. Which goes back to making every word further the story.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: arianne on June 21, 2011, 03:05:17 PM ---I'm pretty sure that "wordy" is unlikely to become a genre in the near future ;D "Oh, hey, check out this new wordy novel by so-and-so"? Not happening.
--- End quote ---
Stephen King seems to do OK writing things that, well, strike me at least as immensely wordy.
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