Going In For The (Over)Kill
Something I have noticed in a couple of the novels I have been reading lately is that there is a lot of, what I consider, overkill in certain passages. Especially when it comes to descriptions of things and events in the story.
These passages turn me off because they seem to drone on and on describing what seems to be mundane items or events in exorbitant detail. Even when the item or event is important to the story, I find myself flipping forward and scurrying past the repetitive words. Especially when I feel the author has already sufficiently described what is happening. Sometimes brevity is best I feel, and I certainly do not mind the occasional embellishment to add emphasis. But when it seems to happen over and over, I find myself and my mind starting to wander away from the story and having to refocus.
I am sure some people like this sort of writing. Apparently I am not one of them however. I just unnerves me that a good story gets sidetracked by an over use of over zealous descriptions. I wonder if they are just used in such an overkill fashion to add girth to a story.
I already have gone through my novel Under the Darkened Moon and ripped out huge swatches of these sorts of descriptions because they annoyed me so much. Maybe by doing so it makes the story too simplistic. But to me it makes the story better.
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