Sometimes Less is Less

I couldn't wait another year to find out what happened in the third series of Game of Thrones. I went back to the original source and read the third book in the series, Storm of Swords. George R.R. Martin's book is over 1,000 pages long in paperback. I read it all as fast as I could to find out what happened. All of the books in the series have been long. They have to be to cover the sprawling story set mainly in the land of Westeros, covering many different stories and characters. I devoured every page, and when I got to the end I wanted more. That's the mark of a great story teller working with a great story. In general, publishers, producers, and even poetry editors prefer shorter pieces. They don't cost as much to publish or produce. They also believe that the audience's attention span shrinks every year, and in order to find an audience their content must be shorter. In some cases, telling more details can make your story better. The books in the Game of Thrones series proves that's not the case (I know the overall series is called, "A Song of Fire and Ice" I just call it "Game of Thrones" because I first came to it through the HBO series, not the novels). In the right hands a long story can be even more commercially successful than a short story. It's a truism that less is more. Even if that's generally true, it's not true all the time. Sometimes, less isn't more, less is less -- making a story shorter can sometimes lose its heart. How do you know? Trust your instinct. You've spent more time with the material than anyone else. What do you think? Ask the opinion of one or two trusted readers (or viewers if it's a video). Are there parts of the story they think you should cut? If you think your story works better at length, keep it. Don't cut just because someone said "less is more." Should you make cuts if your publisher or producer requests it? I'll address that in a future post.