[ SECRET POST #1755 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1755 ⌋


Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



__________________________________________________

02.


__________________________________________________

03.


__________________________________________________

04.


__________________________________________________

05.


__________________________________________________

06.


__________________________________________________

07.


__________________________________________________

08.


__________________________________________________

09.


__________________________________________________

10.


__________________________________________________

11.


__________________________________________________

12.


__________________________________________________

13.


__________________________________________________

14.


__________________________________________________

15.


__________________________________________________

16.


__________________________________________________

17.


__________________________________________________

18.


__________________________________________________

19.


__________________________________________________

20.


__________________________________________________

21.


__________________________________________________

22.


__________________________________________________

23.


__________________________________________________

24.


__________________________________________________

25.


__________________________________________________

26.


__________________________________________________

27.


__________________________________________________

28.


__________________________________________________

29.


__________________________________________________

30.


__________________________________________________

31.


__________________________________________________

32.


__________________________________________________

33.


__________________________________________________

34.


__________________________________________________

35.


__________________________________________________

36.


__________________________________________________

37.


__________________________________________________

38.



Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 09 pages, 206 secrets from Secret Submission Post #251.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 1 2 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeats ]
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

Comments

[gertie-flirty.livejournal.com]

What is "minimalist fic?"

I'm being genuine, I haven't heard that term before.

[immortality.livejournal.com]

This. I've never heard it either.

[velvet-mace.livejournal.com]

Few words. Terse. Suggestive rather than descriptive.

On one side, the OP is right, the reader has to bring a lot of his or her own imagination to the experience. Some people enjoy this, because it makes the fic more interactive and because it covers a lot of ground in few words, it can be emotionally quite powerful.

However, sometimes a reader just doesn't want to work for their fic. They just want to sit back, read and have the story unfold vividly in front of their eyes. And there's nothing at all wrong with that.

And just as you can go so wordy that the story gets lost in the hunks of ponderous exposition, you can also go so barebones and sketchy that it becomes confusing and unsatisfying. I remember reading a story where I got to the end of it and I didn't know which characters were interacting or what precisely they were up to. That's not just minimalist, that's fail.

[gertie-flirty.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. thanks for the explanation.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree with all you've said, although I'm not sure how "minimalist" we're talking here, or what fics the OP has encountered that they're complaining about. As I've grown as a writer, I've found that less is often more, but I agree that it's not good to write so few words that you confuse your audience. On the other hand, I don't believe in "not making the reader work for their fic". I'm a person who reads between the lines and doesn't appreciate spoon-feeding, so I expect other people to as well. It's fine if others don't like that, but that's how I roll.

But part of being a writer is finding the balance between too much information and too little, and a lot of fanfic writers don't have enough experience to know how to do that.

[straydog733.livejournal.com]

Good description here, I thoroughly approve.

I find mixing it up works really well too. A fair amount of fics use minimalism to build to an end-line reveal, which if done well, can be wonderful. When I go minimalist, I tend towards using first person to disguise the identity of the narrator until the end. But if it's done poorly, you can end up with some serious crash-and-burns.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

And just as you can go so wordy that the story gets lost in the hunks of ponderous exposition, you can also go so barebones and sketchy that it becomes confusing and unsatisfying.

Yes, exactly this. Sometimes I reach the end of fics and go "wait, what the fuck just happened?" and it leaves me feeling really frustrated and angry.