So Much Rambling Going On
Rambling
Have you ever picked up a book that you were so excited about reading only to find once you opened it, you were immediately turned off because of so much rambling?
I have encountered this many times. Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it. Sometimes a writer wants to get their point across effectively and winds up rambling.
Other times, it is just their style.
I do my best not to be a rambler and think that it is an excellent general rule to follow. Picking up a book that has entire chapters of nothing but the description can be quite daunting, kind of like sitting in the June heat during a three-hour wedding.
When I find myself rambling, I often switch to having the characters describe through dialogue, what is going on around them. It is not easy but can be quite rewarding.
As I have said before, I am not an editor or publisher, only an author. But I would like to share what I have learned thus far with you. Rambling is a big no-no.
How right you are. Rambling is an insult to the reader; all description should be an integral part of the story and having characters do the description is certainly a good way of getting round the boredom thing. I know there are plenty of stream-of-consciousness novels around, some of them have been raved about, but don’t we write for the reader and isn’t author intrusion a bit of cheek?
Oh, yes, it did happen to me!! And that was so bad… I remember once – there was so much rambling that I had to give up the book. This is something I do very seldom and it always makes me sad to come to this point.
Long descriptions are not the only thing that can become boring. You have also those long descriptions of a situation that is not really relevant for the story, but for some reason the author decides to write A LOT about them.
Thank you so much for this post; every writer should read this and become aware of the problem. I think that this is one of the worse things writers can do to the reader- AND to their story.
Have a nice week-end!