Conciseness Pt. II (that's a two)

Writing style, very largely occurs at the sentence level. When I first wrote about conciseness, I focused on the sentence level. I don't regret it because that is the most important place to start and to work on. But sentences are a microcosm. Everything that you do in your sentences should also happen in your whole works.

The first rule was to split up long sentences and complex ideas. The same goes for your writing. Small paragraphs are easy to digest. Sometimes you only need to put 3-5 sentences in a paragraph because that's all it needs. Sometimes it needs much more, but that's not a problem until your paragraphs start taking up half a page or more. If you are writing a chaptered work, make your chapters as long as they need to be. Once you have addressed the point, given information, and made conclusions, move on to the next chapter. There's nothing more to say.

The second rule was to cut out needless words and phrases. In your larger works, you may find you can remove entire paragraphs or sections. We have a tendency to repeat ourselves ad nauseum. It is sometimes subtle, but sometimes not. It's a vestige from school, the 5-paragraph essay we've done far too many times. "Here's what I'm going to say. Here's the things I'm saying. Here's the things I just said." It's painful, but we sometimes find ourselves not sure what else to say. If you need to say the same thing three times, do it, but delete two of them afterward.

If conciseness is "saying everything that matters in as few words as possible," then there are some issues of definition there. Many people would argue that every bit of information adds to the whole of the work. There is some truth to that. However, I would also argue that if the color of the walls is irrelevant to a story, then adding it in only hinders the experience. I would say that the ultimate conciseness uses as few words, sentences, and paragraphs as possible to express your idea without being confusing to your readers. It sounds really unpleasant, so utilitarian. That much conciseness might be overkill, but somewhere between that and excessively flowery language is a pleasant writing style.