Musings on writing

Because I've had two excellent editors going through my writing and their advice did get through even if I didn't apply it every time, I've been thinking about how my prose is changing but still remains the same.

I'm thinking about the "write what you know" law which to me becomes "write what you want to read". So no purple prose from me, and lots of dialog. Mostly two senses in writing, because that's what I use the most in life – eyes and ears. And when I read prose I don't want long descriptive blocks of text, I only need a short sentence to sparkle my imagination.

So I'm not very descriptive, as I have a visual imagination (with years of movies and comics/graphic novels on my back, how couldn't I?), but actually, now that I think about it, I'm a sounds writer, because I don't feel the need to describe things physically. I did in the past, but not anymore – and get upset when someone spends pages on physical descriptions, because it blurs my vision and I can't see a damn thing.

So I guess I'm mostly a sound-writer, or better a human voices writer. I tend to write what I hear in my head. If I use a deep penetration POV, I'll sound like an omniscient narrator anyway during conversations as I don't put many details in besides the spoken lines.

True that I'm not really a talking head and I should squeeze in a little body language – it wouldn't hurt – but adding surrounding details? Not so much. I mean, personally, if I'm talking to someone, I concentrate on the person in front of me (unless my mindwanders off on her own, but that's another story) so I'm not really picking detail on what's going on around us unless there's a big disturbing sound that interrupts the conversation and distract us.

I like to create my own images, that's why I don't like extensive written descriptions – they confuse me more than help me (and bore me, so I just skip them) – but I do need to write down every single word I hear uttered in my head.

As for body language, I guess I'm limited to my own, so my characters mostly shrug (and yeah, they do shrug a lot!), nod, shake their heads and sometimes snort. But then this goes back to the "write what you know" which naturally translates into "write what you feel is natural to you", the writer, so most of your characters will behave like you even if they have completely different goals and wants.

Also, probably because I'm used to following stories on visual media, I can easily skip the "boring bits". Even when reading, I don't need to know your character went to the bathroom (I'm assuming s/he does if s/he's human) or what he ate, unless something happens that pushes the story forward on that occasion. I'm not interested in what menu is on their table or what objects are in their house, unless they come into play (who said "If you put a gun in scene one you better use it later"?).

That's why I'm quite fast-paced in my storytelling and like fast-paced stories as well. The thing that upsets me the most is reading a novel where nothing happens. If I want to read a day/month/year in the life of someone, I'll look for a biography or a non-fiction book. A story is conflict, internal or external, I don't care (I'm not a big action fan), but something must happen – and possibly fast.

Do I make any sense?

Do you, as a writer, linger in descriptions?

Do you, as a reader, look for long descriptions otherwise you can't feel the book or are you for a more dry prose that takes you on a roller-coaster ride?