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disappointing outing at the writing group. They didnt hate the piece, but they thought it had the same weakness a lot of my writing does - a lack of detail.
Sighs ...
writing weakness
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Just curious...
What story did you end up sharing? Did they elaborate more than the advice of your writing ‘lacks of detail’?
Hugs,
Leila
They might be right...
They might be right...
Some pieces are good but need to be fleshed out more to expand on characters and storylines. You do short stories and parts 99% of the time, but there are times when we wish you'd have done more than you did. It's tough to do and it's not really your style, but you do leave us wanting more :(
Take it as a compliment, you had them hooked enough to want more. It hurts sometimes, but at least you have the opposite of some of us: we write until we have diarrhea of the mouth and people want us to just boil it down!
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
I have the opposite weakness
The plot and momentum of my stories get bogged down in details and digressions.
The serials mostly, some of my shorter pieces find the right balance.
I get frustrated when the stories that I knock out in a few hours
get better responses than my personal favorite labors of love.
Suddenly I see why that might be...
The ideas you come up for stories one after the next are incredible,
you have a brilliant imagination; but I've felt some of them would be better
if they'd been fleshed out with more dialogue and individual scenes;
but I wouldn't know how to do that any more than I could trim mine
down for pacing. Maybe think of a story as a film you're watching,
scene by scene while you're doing the outline.
The two best pieces of advice I got from Jill (Angela Rasch)
were to engage all the reader's senses so they see/hear/feel/smell
what the narrator is experiencing; and to use action verbs rather than
passive ones to draw the reader into the scene rather than skim along its surface.
You have the talent and the exposition skills, any artform is a constant education
about what works and what might be done different to make it be even better...
And advice from others is useful, but ultimately it's if you feel like
you're saying WHAT you want to say + HOW you want to say it.
I'm sure Picasso had friends saying: "What's with the 3 noses?
You really need to paint more realistically!"
Which if he'd heeded it he wouldn't
be Picasso anymore.
~hugs, Veronica
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
No Criticisms
Don't take to heart what they say and allow it to tear you down. Perhaps they aren't criticising but merely wanting to know more? So take heart in the fact that you got them interested? As you edit, could you think of what you see, what you smell, what you hear, what you feel? Is the protagonist cold or warm? Happy, or Sad? They want to know more about the protagonist and the situation they or their companions are in.
Take heart.
Gwen Haseya
too much
Too much detail and worse, repetition, can quickly kill the readers attention. (there are authors here who kill their stories with this maybe confusing word count with quality.) Too little (and I might be guilty of this myself at times) and maybe the readers are left wanting to know more. Striking the balance is the difficult thing.
My writing style, on reflection, is partly down to my education - at Uni you have to present facts without flowering it up too much. But it's also coloured by my reading over the years.
FWIW you could do worse than read some Janet Evanovich, she drops characters in and out with sketch outlines, conversations are short and overall you collect information through each book.
Did these 'critics' say what they thought was missing specifically? Did they want more character description, location or context? Without specifics how can you address it?
AFAIK the shortest story is just 6 words but without context it's gibberish! Here goes - 'he came, he saw, he conquered'. No character name, location or dialog but most of the UK population know it and understand it.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Don't forget the reader type
Some kinds of reader like fast, action packed stories where they can use their own imagination to fill in the gaps.
Others like to absorb the story slower, savouring the detail around the characters and their surroundings.
It sounds like your group maybe biased towards the second kind.
Of course, there are probably other kinds, but I'm not a Professor of Literature, I just read a lot.
Penny
A writers group is a tool
Use it to help your writing. Some criticism is necessary to point out weaknesses. You might try writing a few paragraphs in greater detail as an exercise or even rewrite a part of an existing story just so you can see the difference. There is no need to be discouraged though. Even Shakespeare got negative comments. I doubt that anyone can write anything that everyone finds to be perfect. In the end only you can decide that the story is right.
I agree
My Creative Writing group limits us to around 300 words on our weekly assignments. It is difficult to go into too much detail in such a short space. It does concentrate the mind when you write a piece that is over 500 words long and you have to remove almost half of it.
I would not worry about the 'need more detail' comments BUT I'd take them to heed and try adding the detail in and see how it plays out.
Detail is only part of telling a story. One small part in most stories.
Think about how a Radio Play script works. It relies on painting a picture of the people and places using you the listeners imagination. That's where the detail can come in.
A stage play is all about what is shown to you. One version of Hamlet may very well use the same words as another but the presentation may well be different or even virtually non existent if you see it at 'The Globe' in London. It does not detract from the enjoyment of the play.
Detail has a time and a place. Some writers can get away with two chapters of detail and backstory and their readers don't mind. Others can't do that. (most of us). Use it when needed and in only the amount needed.
Lastly, it is your work and is written in your style. Be proud of it.
Samantha
The problem might be...
The problem might be is that your stories are to short. I did a quick look and randomly picked out several of your stories. Basically your writing 'Flash' stories (stories confined to less than 1000 words). Nothing wrong with that but it has its limitations. It's quick, easy for many and gets to the point - but....
Overall there is a lack of substance. No bringing about the setting or life to the charaters. No full background just a quick "Here read" then poof gone. You limit yourself on character growth as with world setting. There is some but in many cases limits the writers skill of developing their higher potential. Others may perceive this as a lack of growth if that is all the writer does by leaving their readers wanting more substance.
Not many readers have the full time to put in reading a more detailed story so 'Flash Stories' have their place but when something is good it can also leave the reader somewhat frustrated. You don't have to give a full description of the world but they may be saying is to fill it out more. Don't limit yourself, expand as this will also help you take on bigger projects that may leave you wandering about on how to fill it out when you do take that step.