Lauded playwright and storyteller William Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet that 'brevity is the soul of wit / And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes'. In other words, don't waste the reader's time with your unnecessary long and inane ramblings and excruciating detail. You don't need to have half a dozen sub-clauses, a dozen adjectives and just as many adverbs to describe the action of someone sitting down on a sofa with a cup of tea and about to flick through a newspaper.
Typically being too verbose is looked down upon in the literary world. It reeks of the writer being too self-indulgent in their efforts to sound overly flowery and sophisticated, and carries all the hallmarks of just bad writing. Actual skill comes in the form of using as few but appropriate words as is necessary to convey something without utterly bringing all form of pacing to a total standstill. The reader just stops paying attention at that point and is no longer invested, because the author has just bored them with a regurgitation of as many thesaurus entries as they could muster just to describe what a certain character's car looks like.
I mean, look at me! I've just spent my last two paragraphs being mildly verbose!
But let's ignore what Shakespeare and the literary world have to say.
Now it's your turn to play the verbosity game!
Wait. That's illegal!
Verbose version:
Immediately cease and discontinue your present action at this present moment. This activity you are embarking flouts judicial and legislative legal norms, guidelines and authoritative declarations that hold jurisdictional effect over this particular geographical location.
I have a dentist appointment next Friday.
Typically being too verbose is looked down upon in the literary world. It reeks of the writer being too self-indulgent in their efforts to sound overly flowery and sophisticated, and carries all the hallmarks of just bad writing. Actual skill comes in the form of using as few but appropriate words as is necessary to convey something without utterly bringing all form of pacing to a total standstill. The reader just stops paying attention at that point and is no longer invested, because the author has just bored them with a regurgitation of as many thesaurus entries as they could muster just to describe what a certain character's car looks like.
I mean, look at me! I've just spent my last two paragraphs being mildly verbose!
But let's ignore what Shakespeare and the literary world have to say.
Now it's your turn to play the verbosity game!
RULES!
- Each poster leaves a simple sentence/activity/whatever for the next person. For example, I could leave behind the sentence: "I got into my car and turned on the engine to go to work."
- The following poster's task is to take that simple sentence or activity and stretch it out into something tortuously long. After which they suggest a short sentence or activity for the next poster.
Wait. That's illegal!
Verbose version:
Immediately cease and discontinue your present action at this present moment. This activity you are embarking flouts judicial and legislative legal norms, guidelines and authoritative declarations that hold jurisdictional effect over this particular geographical location.
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FOR NEXT POSTER:
Short version:FOR NEXT POSTER:
I have a dentist appointment next Friday.