8 Techniques for Writing a Fast Read (Part 1)

            One of the best compliments I can receive is that something I’ve written is a “fast-read.”  When my test readers tell me that, then I know the work is on its way to being published.

            Believe it or not, there are a strategies involved, and they are surprisingly easy to follow.

1.  Let’s start with vocabulary. 

Most authors out there try to dazzle with their vocabulary.  The insinuation seems to be, “If I use this word, people will realize how smart I am.”  That may be, but they are less likely to read another of your books.  The problem is you’ve missed your target audience.  You are writing for other people who like big words, and most people who read fiction do not.  My attitude is, every now and again it’s OK to use a word like “hubris” or “polyembryony” …  but your reader will probably be better served with “arrogance” or “identical twins.”  It’s not “dumbing down,” but rather letting your reader have what they thought they were buying when they picked up your book:  A relaxing voyage through their imagination, rather than a succession of trips to the dictionary.  Make sense?

2.  Try keeping your paragraphs and chapters short as well. 

By this, I mean cutting off all of the excess fat from your work.  Who cares if you took ten pages to describe how the guy wiped his face and you think it's beautiful?  Unless wiping his face is central to the story, “He wiped his face” is enough.

3.  Short sentences are good also.  

There is no writer I can think of who did this to greater effect than Hemingway.  Compound sentences require concentration and focus…  ie, they require “work” and your reader is not reading your stuff to work, but rather to get away from work.  Make them work to figure out the central mystery, or what X is going to do when he finds out Y’s been cheating on him.  But don’t ever make them work to remember what you’ve been talking about for the past ten pages.

            4.  Plot-driven pieces tend to read faster than descriptive ones.

             You can spend ten pages describing a noise from the cabin out back, but if there’s no action you’re going to lose most readers.  When you talk about what happens, instead of putting the reader in the middle of the action, you will lose most of them.