The incredible shrinking story...N M Browne

By Nicky -

 I have been teaching again. I talk a lot about brevity. I go on (at some length) about being succinct,

getting to the point, not getting bogged down in needless waffle, unnecessarily verbose syntactical constructions and mindless repetition. 

 I am not someone who has ever found myself hidebound by my own advice, but lately I have been writing poetry and I now discover that I find a thirty two line sestina too prolix. When I move on to writing a story, I am hacking back so much that I think I am in negative word counts. Perhaps if I carry on this way I may dispense with words altogether and simply write: '?' 

I am sure it is temporary and I will recover my appetite for verbosity shortly. In the meantime: '?'

Comments

Peter Leyland said…
Well your blog struck a chord with me this morning Nicky. I am about to teach my African Novels course and am summarising everything that moves. I am at present making 'succinct' notes on Things Fall Apart so that I will remember it, and simultaneously planning a shortened version of Achebe's life story. The art of writing precis at school was one of my most useful learning skills! Thanks for your interesting post and hope that your lessons are going well.
29 September 2021 at 10:55
Umberto Tosi said…
I'll keep this brief ... :D
1 October 2021 at 01:28
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