So many people, including my editor, tell me that "less is more" when writing. Have they ever done math in their lives? More is more--less is literally an antonym of "more".
I guess my editor and "published authors" think 1>2. Whew, good thing they've never engineered anything in their lives. I'd love to see how their satellites function.
Anyway... For the sane people in this group, here are a few tricks I use to get more out of my writing.
Some words can be split into multiple words! For example "halfway" can be split into "half of the way", literally quadrupling your word count while preserving meaning.
Every verb needs an adverb and every improper noun needs an adjective: He ran to the kitchen? Boring! How about: He excitedly ran to the stuffy kitchen. Oooh, I wonder what he's excited about? Why is the kitchen stuffy? Did they cook his favourite dish? See how many reader questions arise with this technique? You're getting more words AND more questions.
Feel free to share your tips and tricks for getting more out of writing!
My goal in writing is actually to produce an underflow error. I will write negative words until it wraps back around to Lord of the Rings
Are those words written with anti-ink or anti-pixels? How do you protect it from regular ink and pixels?
Oh I'm just burning books
This is partially correct. Less is more… as in more work for your readers.
Nobody wants to put effort into reading your story. Engagement and discovery are fragile and unreliable narrative tools that put too much responsibility onto the reader. You’re going to need to put that work in yourself, spelling out your themes and symbolism explicitly for the constantly distracted public. Keep in mind that your book is competing for attention with podcasts, streaming music, TikTok algorithms, and occasionally even socializing with family and friends. That’s a lot of content to stretch a tiny attention span around.
So go ahead and add that mental note of realization for your protagonist. Have the mentor figure clarify his metaphors. Have someone then rephrase that in simpler terms. Let your character tell each other how they feel on top of describing their expressions and body language. You risk confusing and losing your audience if you don’t.
"We need to get this done ASAP, which is short for As Soon As Possible!"
i personally make sure that my word count creates a parabola when i graph it. that's why i do differential calculus as a warm-up everytime i write!
Some people want every book to read like a summary, I want every summary to read like a book, we are not the same.
They say that a picture tells a thousand words, so you should use at least a thousand words to paint the picture of every scene.
Do you even comprehend the complex mathematics that underscore masterpieces like "Mum, there are ants in my pants!", "The Horny Milkman", and "Twilight"?