Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.
Henry David Thoreau
Greater and lesser writers (usually greater) have expressed the sentiment for eons. The tenet that less is more confounds then empowers. Its truth sweetens its irony.
In business it is wise; in life it simplifies; in art it magnifies.
Actors say, “I like your choices.” They know the scene as acted was one of ten, maybe twenty approaches contrived—they understand the talent evidenced in choosing the best.
As with actors, so with novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters. From a score of options for each of 60 or more scenes and hundreds of combinations, they select the brightest.
It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.
Nietzsche
As we whittle story, act, sequence, scene, and individual beats of exposition, description, and dialogue, we near a work’s pulsing core. As debris flies from layer upon layer, vitality intensifies. We reach the heart where the work’s essence is revealed; its beat connects, compels, guides us.
Reaching these rewards demands time, honesty, and courage. Reaching these rewards may mean killing your babies.
The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit.
Felelon
I’ve been living the concept of wise choice, of sacrifice for greater good, since leaving my job to write. I continually choose what to keep and what to discard to facilitate my dream chasing.
Life as much as prose requires editing.
Those times in life when I’ve been richest haven’t equated to greater happiness. I’ve found living simply, largely removing myself from consumer culture, enhances confidence and satisfaction. Among friends, I’m never less happy or more wanting—the opposite often seems true.
Could it be that in life as in art fewer trappings bring greater rewards?
