Hey, look it's a Nancy Coffelt original! And it's for sale, you say? Oh my, I better get right on that. Let me see, all I have to do is contact Nancy Coffelt (see sidebar) and she'll tell me just how this meticulously rendered whimsical world of happiness can be mine. And it will bring me luck and rainbows and clear skin, too? Thank you, Nancy Coffelt!I'll now return you to our scheduled programing...
I'm actually supposed to be coloring right now, but it's been such a week of all-over-the-map of awful and wonderful, it's almost impossible to concentrate. I'm going to spare you the details of that diabolical map, though. Trust me, it definitely falls into the dreaded category of Too Much Information.
You know what I'm talking about. How many times have you squirmed through an elderly relative's lovingly and very carefully described medical procedure? And bonus points for you if it included the digestive track. Or what about that someone you don't even really know confiding in you about a particularly vexing problem in marital intimacy-land? Ew. Yep, you've just been a victim of TMI.
But TMI can come up in other areas too - your writing for one. I write and I teach writing. I also read but don't teach that, I suspect that's a harder job than teaching writing. I'm working with first graders this week and - see? It's very easy to be that guy (or that gal) that gives out way too much information.
So how do you avoid doing it? I know that in my own writing, if I'm boring myself, I'm probably doing it. But I can't catch all of it. That's one of the reasons I rely on having both readers and my writers' groups to point out all the places in my story that make their eyeballs bleed. Luckily it's a lot easier to spot it in others' work. By becoming a discerning reader you can educate yourself to better spot TMI. And that can definitely help you with your own decision making as to what needs to stay in your own project and what needs to go.
Take picture books for example - usually on the shorter side - many of them hover around the 500 word count so every word needs to count. When my agent sold my first novel, someone said to me that it must feel good to graduate to writing "real" books as opposed to "little kid" books. Wow. Let me make this absolutely clear. Writing picture books is hard. And one of the very reasons it is hard is that they require such an economy of language. TMI is a killer of that economy. I mean does your reader need to know it was a fine day in March? I guess if it was a story about St. Patrick's day it might be important. Or why would we need to know a character's pants were red if it had nothing to do with the story. If it was what the story was about, like getting teased about loving red pants, or that the character's dream was to be a stop sign, then the red pants reference stays. If not, thanks for playing. Come to think of it, a story about a kid standing in the middle of traffic willing it to stop is not, I repeat, not a good idea.
This sort of extra information doesn't help a longer work either. If what you've presented does NOTHING to move your story forward, then come on, why is it there? "But I love that part!" you cry. And I believe you, really. So here's what you do. You copy and paste that beloved passage, print it out, run down to Frames Plus Mega Warehouse and get yourself a little gold number, slap those words into it and - voila! They'll be with you forever. But they won't be in your story anymore distracting your reader from what you're really trying to say.
Okay, I'm off now, got a million things to do like going to the store and the dog's nails probably need trimming and the dishwasher has this funny smell and - see? TMI.
I'm actually supposed to be coloring right now, but it's been such a week of all-over-the-map of awful and wonderful, it's almost impossible to concentrate. I'm going to spare you the details of that diabolical map, though. Trust me, it definitely falls into the dreaded category of Too Much Information.
You know what I'm talking about. How many times have you squirmed through an elderly relative's lovingly and very carefully described medical procedure? And bonus points for you if it included the digestive track. Or what about that someone you don't even really know confiding in you about a particularly vexing problem in marital intimacy-land? Ew. Yep, you've just been a victim of TMI.
But TMI can come up in other areas too - your writing for one. I write and I teach writing. I also read but don't teach that, I suspect that's a harder job than teaching writing. I'm working with first graders this week and - see? It's very easy to be that guy (or that gal) that gives out way too much information.
So how do you avoid doing it? I know that in my own writing, if I'm boring myself, I'm probably doing it. But I can't catch all of it. That's one of the reasons I rely on having both readers and my writers' groups to point out all the places in my story that make their eyeballs bleed. Luckily it's a lot easier to spot it in others' work. By becoming a discerning reader you can educate yourself to better spot TMI. And that can definitely help you with your own decision making as to what needs to stay in your own project and what needs to go.
Take picture books for example - usually on the shorter side - many of them hover around the 500 word count so every word needs to count. When my agent sold my first novel, someone said to me that it must feel good to graduate to writing "real" books as opposed to "little kid" books. Wow. Let me make this absolutely clear. Writing picture books is hard. And one of the very reasons it is hard is that they require such an economy of language. TMI is a killer of that economy. I mean does your reader need to know it was a fine day in March? I guess if it was a story about St. Patrick's day it might be important. Or why would we need to know a character's pants were red if it had nothing to do with the story. If it was what the story was about, like getting teased about loving red pants, or that the character's dream was to be a stop sign, then the red pants reference stays. If not, thanks for playing. Come to think of it, a story about a kid standing in the middle of traffic willing it to stop is not, I repeat, not a good idea.
This sort of extra information doesn't help a longer work either. If what you've presented does NOTHING to move your story forward, then come on, why is it there? "But I love that part!" you cry. And I believe you, really. So here's what you do. You copy and paste that beloved passage, print it out, run down to Frames Plus Mega Warehouse and get yourself a little gold number, slap those words into it and - voila! They'll be with you forever. But they won't be in your story anymore distracting your reader from what you're really trying to say.
Okay, I'm off now, got a million things to do like going to the store and the dog's nails probably need trimming and the dishwasher has this funny smell and - see? TMI.
1 comments:
You totally rock and I'm of course jealous. This whole day for me has been one of TMI from everyone. I'm cooking a whole turkey (boiling a baby)and my cats and dog are all lined up waiting for me to pick the chicken off the bones. I don't know if they like the smell or the fact that while I do it I burn the shit out of my hand.
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