Too much is too much. Of a good thing, that is. You hear this adage a lot and it’s definitely true in all things. Too much sun will burn you. Too much fun will wear you out.
I’ve learned the hard way that too much of something can be bad – like when I used to love those gummy fruit slices, you know the ones that look like orange, lemon or lime slices [they have cherry too] and they’re covered with sugar? They used to be my favorite candy. I’d devour a box of them in less than a day. What made them so good? They’re not around all the time, at least my supermarket only seems to carry them around certain holidays. The good ones weren’t cheap, so I’d buy a box of 12 or 16, however they came, and I’d savor every tangy, sugary, fruity bite.
Then I’d be done for a few months until the next holiday came around and I found them again.
One day, DH found them at BJ’s [the club store] in a tub. There were probably 50 slices in each tub and they were cheap. He bought me two tubs.
My eyes lit up, just exactly like a kid in a candy store. I ate, and ate and ate my way through one tub. And halfway through the second tub I picked up a fruit slice and looked at it and felt nothing but utter disgust.
The second half of that tub got thrown away, stale and hard. And I’ve never had a candied fruit slice since. I ruined the joy of it for myself. What had been an occasional and much anticipated treat, a guilty pleasure, became an overindulgence.
Too much of a good thing.
How does this relate to writing? It does, trust me. Everything in my world relates to writing somehow.
Just like candied fruit slices, too much of anything in your writing is also a bad thing. Too many adverbs, too many adjectives. Too many characters in a story. Too many POV switches in a scene. Too many sex scenes. Too much angst [yes it can happen].
Treat these things like candied fruit slices and use them sparingly and with purpose. If you put them in by the tub full, your readers will get a stomach ache and they may toss the stale remains of your story away in disgust.
I’ve learned the hard way that too much of something can be bad – like when I used to love those gummy fruit slices, you know the ones that look like orange, lemon or lime slices [they have cherry too] and they’re covered with sugar? They used to be my favorite candy. I’d devour a box of them in less than a day. What made them so good? They’re not around all the time, at least my supermarket only seems to carry them around certain holidays. The good ones weren’t cheap, so I’d buy a box of 12 or 16, however they came, and I’d savor every tangy, sugary, fruity bite.
Then I’d be done for a few months until the next holiday came around and I found them again.
One day, DH found them at BJ’s [the club store] in a tub. There were probably 50 slices in each tub and they were cheap. He bought me two tubs.
My eyes lit up, just exactly like a kid in a candy store. I ate, and ate and ate my way through one tub. And halfway through the second tub I picked up a fruit slice and looked at it and felt nothing but utter disgust.
The second half of that tub got thrown away, stale and hard. And I’ve never had a candied fruit slice since. I ruined the joy of it for myself. What had been an occasional and much anticipated treat, a guilty pleasure, became an overindulgence.
Too much of a good thing.
How does this relate to writing? It does, trust me. Everything in my world relates to writing somehow.
Just like candied fruit slices, too much of anything in your writing is also a bad thing. Too many adverbs, too many adjectives. Too many characters in a story. Too many POV switches in a scene. Too many sex scenes. Too much angst [yes it can happen].
Treat these things like candied fruit slices and use them sparingly and with purpose. If you put them in by the tub full, your readers will get a stomach ache and they may toss the stale remains of your story away in disgust.
2 comments:
Yeah, I hear ya. I always struggle with how much humor to put in. I mean, I need readers to breathe in there sometime or they're gonna drop dead and then who will buy my books? It's a worry, I tell ya. ;-)
Hey that's a very good comparison! I get that with books too. When I read all of one genre, until I overdose on it. It's always good to switch things up, as a writer and a reader.
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