Overwriting is essentially an issue of repetition, hammering readers with variations of the same idea—sometimes even more of our best stuff. It saps momentum by overdoing what’s already clear. It overcomplicates the narrative, obscuring the throughlines you’re working so hard to create.
- At the story level, overwriting repeats actions and ideas that are already clear to readers, packing in too much backstory, being unable to identify what’s central to the story.
- At the paragraph level, overwriting creates competing that ideas crowd out clarity.
- At the sentence level, overwriting muddies the picture with multiple images.
The goal is for the writing to “disappear” so that readers stay immersed in the story. But pruning our darlings is painful. It’s so hard to resist insisting, to be sure that readers have heard us.
Join me in exploring the strategy of pruning our drafts, as we practice The Writes of Fiction.
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 