Calorie Count v Word Count by Gerri Brousseau

As some of you may know, I recently made a commitment to post my daily goals, one of which is health related.  I am not obese by any stretch of the imagination but recently have put on a few extra pounds.  After checking out some diet programs, I opted to try Weight Watchers Online.  As I follow their guidelines and shave off the unwanted weight, I thought about  how this relates to writing.

As authors, we have all written flowery passages over weight with wonderful prose, bulging with those few extra adjectives.  We cleave to our written words because they are a comfort food to our soul, but are they healthy for the body of our manuscript.  Oh, I still get cravings for potato chips and the occasional bar of chocolate, the irresistible urge to add  yet another sentence full of effervescent description or maybe just one more paragraph.  We have become a society  obsessed with being thin and I ask myself if that could apply to writing?

I have heard "less is more" and KISS (keep it simple, sweetheart) and I can't help but ask myself whether that is true.  Wouldn't the reader now hunger for lean, crisp writing or would they rather indulge themselves by "over-reading" a high work with a high word count?  Knowing all too well the extra time one must spend in exercise, and in the case of writing,  editing, after indulgence, I ask myself, why eat it/write in the first place?  So now, as I become more conscious of the fat content and calorie count of the food I am eating, I grow more conscious of the word count I am feeding my manuscript.  Hopefully this, combined with a little exercise both physical and written, and soon both my manuscript and I will both be in great shape!

Gerri Brousseau

Filed under: romance