This has never been a problem before, but this semester I have found my writing to be much more succinct. Perhaps I have been narrowing the writing as I'm going, perhaps my brain is simply not choosing to put down that witty yet poignant adjective that would stretch the sentence just so.
Perhaps it is nothing to worry about. After thinking about why my pieces are coming out just at the assigned length or just shy I started rereading the works. Again, nothing sparks up and says "wait, this is something that needs to be fixed-no, no, lets add another scene in here . . ." In actuality, I don't think this is a bad thing. I'm not going to panic-I'm just going to hand it in.
So I'm looking at MFA programs, and most require 15-20 sometimes even 30 pages of sample writing. If your someone like me who's longest work is 12 pages at best then I hear your heart drop with mine. But. And in grad school searches there is always a but. Ira Sukrungruang, my fiction teacher and blogger of "The Clever Title", says that if you have 15 pages of solid work then short change them intentionally.
Don't lengthen a work simply because you have to meet a quota. You will end up strangling it. At the risk of sounding cliche, think of your piece as a flower you are growing from seed . . . No, wait, don't. It does sound too cliche.
My advice to the writer who is struggling is to just relax. Finish the piece as you want it to originally be finished and go back to it at a later date. If there is still no inner voice that jumps out at you with more that can be done then let the piece sit on the table.
In short Speak louder. Not longer.
I bet your thinking there's a dead horse in this room Im sitting in by now. Your probably right.
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