Get to the point-- now

[hobgoblinn]

I wanted to share this link from "Coding Horror", one of my daily time wasters. It's usually shop talk about computer programming, but this one is relevant to those of us who are, or aspire to be, writers, especially out here on the 'net. The thing I found most interesting, because it kind of confirms my own feelings and experience reading out here:

Whether you call it "information foraging" or the rather more honest "maximum benefit for minimum effort", it's a powerful model of the way people actually work online. There are billions of web pages, and only a tiny fraction are worth the users' time. That's why informavores are unforgiving. They will..

* Demand to see what you have to offer in under four seconds.
* Form a first impression of your site in just 50 milliseconds.
* Give up on your site entirely within two minutes of arriving.

A related question is-- how has the faster pace of modern communications affected the human ability to read-- and write? My eyes were skipping ahead in well written but long exposition/descriptive passages in paperback novels well before I set eyes on a computer. And I read fast enough that taking the extra time isn't a problem.

I find in general, that poetic flashes of image, evocative phrases and crisp, understated dialogue work best to draw me in and keep me in. If you want to see a fantastic example of this kind of writing, (and an explanation of why I've been so silent the past week or so) look no farther than Anna's Roman Holiday. Anna is a Harry Potter fic author, and I have learned a heck of a lot from devouring her writing this week. This tale has excellent and unexpectedly sympathetic versions of Draco and Snape, and a sequel has a really neat and wholly original Sybil Trelawney. I'd rate it high Mature, with some definitely Adult Only content. There's a scene early on with Hermione and Snape that almost put me off the whole thing, (you'll know if when you get to it) but I'm glad I gave it a chance after that, because the whole series is fantastic.

I should warn that the third book in the trilogy is unfinished, but I know the characters and the shape of the tale well enough at this point that I don't feel the loss so keenly-- I'd like to see how she ends it, but I can easily supply my own if she never gets back to it. It's not as wrenching as the Transformations Quartet, anyway. Go read and enjoy and learn. And thanks to clavally and lady_clover for reccing this to me.

ETA: The responses I've gotten have made me rethink this idea. I think what I'm trying to get at is, however you do it, you have a really limited amount of time to get a reader engaged in your writing, and that time is even more limited by its being on the net. Maybe the better question is-- what engages You as a reader? What do you pause to read and what do you give up on quickly?

Comments

[usedtobeljs]

how has the faster pace of modern communications affected the human ability to read-- and write? My eyes were skipping ahead in well written but long exposition/descriptive passages in paperback novels well before I set eyes on a computer.

Well, actually, I rarely find myself engaged by spare, minimalist prose. What you skip is the stuff I read for, the stuff I return to.

Everybody's different, I think. :-)

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Can you give me an example? The spare, minimalist prose has to have Substance for it to work for me. It can't just be a plot outline or something. It's really Hard to write the kind of prose I'm describing (and I don't do it well.) Which is why I brought it up.


hob

[usedtobeljs]

Well, I can't give an example of the prose I don't like, really. But here's an example of the stuff I love, the opening of Lois McMaster Bujold's fantasy Curse of Chalion:

Cazaril heard the mounted horsemen on the road before he saw them. He glanced over his shoulder. The well-worn track behind him curled up around a rolling rise, what passed for a hill on these high windy plains, before dipping again into the late-winter muck of Baocia's bony soil. At his feet a little rill, too small and intermittent to rate a culvert or a bridge, trickled greenly across the track from the sheep-cropped pastures above. The thump of hooves, jangle of harness, clink of bells, creak of gear and careless echo of voices came on at too quick a rhythm to be some careful farmer with a team, or parsimonious pack-men driving their mules.

From your discussion, I'd suspect this is far too over-written for you, the kind of thing you'd skip. For me it's just about right: nothing fancy at all, but the details are sensory, specific, and evocative of this particular world (with nice introductory attention to character -- Caz WOULD notice all these things).

[antennapedia.livejournal.com]

Interesting-- the stuff you skip is the stuff that pulls me into a story and makes me wriggle with pleasure. Even when I was a kid. I did skip poetry when I was a kid, though, and I might do it now. If I find myself skipping anything in a book these days, it's a sign I'm out of sympathy with the writer and should probably stop reading entirely.

I would submit that the process of scanning a web page for information is qualitatively different from the process of reading. The reader/user/viewer's reason for approaching the material is different. The user is hostile when approaching a web page, particularly an unfamiliar one: give me what I need now, and don't waste my time trying to sell me anything or shove advertising down my throat. With a book, the relationship is more mutual. The reader is on the book's side, and wants it to work, and generally has much more time to invest. The hook still needs to happen early, in movies and in books, but the timing is different.

Oh, and you might also enjoy Worse than Failure, formerly known as the Daily WTF.

[hobgoblinn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I see what you mean-- I've added this to my entry:

ETA: The responses I've gotten have made me rethink this idea. I think what I'm trying to get at is, however you do it, you have a really limited amount of time to get a reader engaged in your writing, and that time is even more limited by its being on the net. Maybe the better question is-- what engages You as a reader? What do you pause to read and what do you give up on quickly?

[antennapedia.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how to analyze this, or to reduce it to a few traits. But with writers I know I'm going to be happy reading, there's an assurance that's obvious in the first few pages. Confidence. "I know where I'm going, and I'm going to take you there with me now. I'm not going to look nervously back over my shoulder to see if you're following. I'm just going to go. Now." And then I follow obediently, often to places I simply didn't expect.

There's another set of issues involving reading protocols that I don't really have a critical vocabulary for. Why most Gene Wolfe doesn't agree with me, even though it's clear he has the confidence I mention above and in many other ways hits my reading buttons (layers of meaning and metaphor and so on). Why I can't read Samuel Delany at all, ditto.

[clavally.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, interesting question. We are talking just in terms of reading fiction? I used to give up quickly on stories that have lots of lines of dialogue, almost like a script, without telling the reader who's talking.

I tend to stick with writing that is descriptive and emotionally evocative. I'll point to the wonderful "Roman Holiday" series as an example, as well:) I almost gave up on it, too, at that exact same scene, btw. When I was planning on recc'ing it to you, I'd thought about warning you to keep with it, but by the time I had a chance to rec it, you'd gotten past that chapter!

If I can side track myself for a moment, I'd like to rec another story -Snape-centric. It's Hermione/Snape, but there's very little romance in it. It's hard to describe, but you'll see what I mean. It's kind of a "Groundhog's Day" type story, where the same day keeps being relived. This one sucked me in...and then stayed with me so that months later I'd all the sudden start thinking about it. There's something very sci-fi about it. It's called "Getting the Hang of Thursdays" by Hayseed http://ashwinder.sycophanthex.com/viewstory.php?sid=6501 I think you'll find it interesting.

And speaking of getting sucked in to stories...I guess that means I should be able to pinpoint what sucks me in...but sometimes, it's as simple as the tone of the writing. *shrug* I'll give more thought to it as I read new stories and get back to you:)