In the leisurely days of Victorian novels, long-winded, rambling stories and essays weren’t a problem – they were an advantage, as the evenings weren’t exactly crammed with exciting entertainment.
These days, with the fast-forward button readily at hand to deal with boring TV programmes, readers are more impatient. Come on! We’ve got things to do, places to go, people to see. Cut to the chase! We want the body on page 1, not half-way through the book.
This change in consumer preferences is perhaps the reason that Twitter is so popular.You’ve probably seen the letters TL;DR used on social media, to stand for ‘Too long; didn’t read.’ In the digital age, even a lengthy answer to a question can lose many readers’ interest. Even short stories are getting shorter – we’re not prepared to flounder through pages of waffle just to reach the thrilling part.
But maybe that’s a good thing.
As well as gripping readers’ attention, shorter forms of writing can be more effective. To reach the word count, less important information (a.k.a. ‘the boring bits’) must be omitted, wordy descriptions are truncated and weak phrases such as very frightened or really old are shortened to stronger versions such as terrified and ancient.
Anmarie Bowler is a local writer who says she appreciates the power of short form prose and believes everyone’s a writer at some point in life. She’s launching a new bi-monthly “literary handbill” called Brevity, which will publish short stories & essays (500 words or under) and brief poems by Isle of Wight residents – and she’s looking for contributions from you!
‘Brevity is the soul of wit,’ according to Shakespeare. Let’s see if Brevity can prove that bite-size writing has more teeth.
Our next meeting is Tuesday, 16th April – the assignment topic is True Friendship… but your writing must also include something blue!