Many people blame Kindle Unlimited and its pay-by-pages-read remuneration system for the increased padding in novels: lots of description, limp banter, and holy socks! have you seen how litrpg novels pad out word count with repeated system statistics?
But in fact padding, or excess verbiage, is a reflection of current attitudes.
We’re used to accumulating stuff and we suck at getting rid of it. Have you seen how many storage unit complexes exist on the outskirts of our cities?
A good editor can help an author eliminate the dross, but that raises a different question: is it dross?
For as many people who hate limp banter, others adore it.
The system stats that I skip in litrpg novels fascinate other readers.
Excess isn’t always excess. It can be valuable to the right audience, and that’s often why it stays. Why eliminate something that someone may enjoy? (An argument remarkably similar to the argument for filling a new storage unit; that is, “we can’t get rid of that only slightly chipped teapot, someone might want it one day, if not to make tea in, maybe as a garden ornament. Wouldn’t it look darling with pansies growing in it?”).
And as an author, I’ll let you into a secret. That excess can make a really effective hiding place for clues you need to sneak in.
Comments
4 responses to “Excess”
I’m seeing the opposite in cozy mystery KU. I have a YT channel where I live show the new releases each week in mysteries. Cozy mysteries a great majority of the time are under 150 pages yet they crank them out each month or every other month. I want to reach through the computer and shake those authors to tell them to combine these into a more in-depth, better-rounded stories. So they do get the word count overall on a yearly basis but, to me, the narrative (and reader) suffers.
I haven’t read many cozy mysteries recently – and now I’m wondering if that’s why! The old ones, such as Charlotte Macleods’, were wonderful escapes. The world-building was strong, but unobtrusive, and the characters quirky and true to themselves across the series.
“And as an author, I’ll let you into a secret. That excess can make a really effective hiding place for clues you need to sneak in.”
It’s not a secret to me, this is actually my problem with padding. When I read elaborate descriptions of a character (looks, clothes, mannerisms), I automatically assume it’s important, only to find that character never appears again. Annoying.
Ooh! This is a huge issue in movies, too! I mightn’t get the screenwriters’ language right, but they were talking a couple of years ago about how annoyed audiences get when ideas/clues are introduced and then go nowhere. No “payoff”. I try really, really hard to ensure everything fits in (like a jigsaw puzzle) and contributes to a story outcome (it might be a sidequest/plot, and so, a minor payoff, but it has to produce something). In this series, though, it might take a few books before you get the aha! moment. I’m a tease 😉