Challenging your words

[John Dean]

I think that one of the golden rules of writing is that every word should do its job and it can make for a brutal editing process for the writer. It’s a process I have recently finished with the latest DCI John Blizzard mystery.

Over the years, I have found my novels becoming shorter. Not because I am not inspired by the stories and the characters that drive them - you wouldn’t put in all that work if you weren’t - but because I am acutely conscious that words must earn their place on the page.

For instance, description and character introspection are vital elements of storytelling if you want your story to work but you can’t afford to overdo them. Readers appreciate depth to the stories that they are reading but they like the narrative to keep moving as well. That’s what keeps them turning the pages.

Do you lose anything for adopting the mindset that challenges words to justify their presence on the page? Not really. Indeed, I would argue that the opposite is true.

As long as you give the reader what they need to understand and appreciate your story and provide it with the pace it requires, you’ll keep your readers engaged. And at the end of the day, that’s what storytelling is all about.