Schrijftips van Ursula K. Le Guin:
1. Avoid the department of fuller explanation (= unnecessary explaining)
2. Avoid the expository lump or infodump (= unnecessary information)
Most of us tend to live in the Department of Fuller Explanation when writing; We are telling ourselves backstory and other information, which the reader won’t actually need to know when reading it.
To avoid the Expository Lump or the Infodump decide — or find out when revising — whether the information is actually necessary. If not, don’t bother. If so, figure out how to work it in as a functional, forward-moving element of the story… giving information indirectly, by hint and suggestion.
Chekhov’s Razor
Anton Chekhov gave some advice about revising a story: first, he said, throw out the first three pages. As a young writer I figured that if anybody knew about short stories, it was Chekhov, so I tried taking his advice. I really hoped he was wrong, but of course he was right. It depends on the length of the story, naturally; if it’s very short, you can only throw out the first three paragraphs. But there are few first drafts to which Chekhov’s Razor doesn’t apply. Starting a story, we all tend to circle around, explain a lot of stuff, set things up that don’t need to be set up. Then we find our way and get going, and the story begins… very often just about on page three. – UKL
[Die drie puntjes… deze dus… en die na ‘and the story begins…’ heten gedachtepuntjes, maar ze worden ook snikkende puntjes genoemd, als een vrouw die huilt zonder geluid – mooi!]