USING THE MINI-SKIRT RULE
One of the golden rules of writing is the ‘mini-skirt rule.’ Using the mini-skirt rule can certainly make your prose sexier and vibrant; if you get my drift.
The rule indicates that you should ‘keep your prose long enough to cover everything, but short enough to keep it interesting for your readers.’
Don’t have your writing dressed up like a Victorian lady trussed up in a ball gown with girdles and multi-layered petticoats, topped off with a jacket and a bountiful hat of peaco*ck feathers and flowers. Phew! That is literally exhausting to think of.
It’s a fine art to write in astrategic mannerand to create a balance between keeping the bare necessities with some flesh to the bones and over spilling the prose with excesses.
For writers of fiction, don’t waste your words and bore your readers to such tears that your story or your book ends up in the dust gathering pile of books thatwent unread.
When it comes to length, follow this rule in keeping your story short and engrossing and work at making your book‘unputdownable.’
‘Cut. Cut. Cut.’
- Cut words, like those unnecessaryadverbs.
- Cut sentences
- Cut pages
- Cut paragraphs
- Keep it short and simple
Things to consider when editing. READ More…
Published by jacquelineobyikocha
A wordsmith with a vivid imagination, an eager mind and a burning desire to carve out tales. As I journey with my muse to that land of all possibilities and self discovery, I hope my personal evolution will serve as a beacon of inspiration for anyone who chooses to stop by.View all posts by jacquelineobyikocha
Reblogged this on Success Inspirers World.
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Thank you
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I love the mini-skirt analogy. My goal when starting a work of fiction is two hundred pages. I begin with an ending in mind and as I approach the 200 pages start to look for a logical way to bring it to that conclusion. The rewrites will increase the page count by perhaps another couple dozen but still within the goal of being what I call an “airplane book,” the right length to start reading at the beginning of a several hour flight and finish just as the landing gear is being lowered.
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“Don’t have your writing dressed up like a Victorian lady trussed up in a ball gown with girdles and multi-layered petticoats, topped off with a jacket and a bountiful hat of peaco*ck feathers and flowers. Phew! That is literally exhausting to think of.” It certainly got my mind in a twist!
Thanks for the tips, priceless in the arsenal of a writer.
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I appreciate your comments Kato. Thanks for taking the time to read it.
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Good advice. If come across a long post and even though it may be wonderful, I don’t have time to read anything that lengthy.
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Great advise.
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You forgot one….Even if you fit into a mini skirt, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should. In other words, not every good writer is a good fiction writer.
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That’s what I’m doing right now. Cut! Cut! Cut! Thanks for the info. I really liked your analogy 🙂
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Love your mini-skirt rule with the Victorian lady analogy. Interesting – and short! 😀
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Nice post I really like it and it will help me to write more posts correctly
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I am glad that you find it useful.
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I’ve always been a firm believer in this, but I’d never heard the mini skirt analogy before. Good one! Right on.
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Thank you for taking the time to read the post and comment. I appreciate this 🙂
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I love the imagery and message.
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