# Exceptionally "wordy" authors....



## jujube (Apr 4, 2016)

I just started a new book tonight.  On page three there is a sentence that is twelve lines long.  Twelve.  It gets better, though.  On page five there's one that's nineteen lines long.  I had completely forgotten the first words by the time I was three quarters through the sentence.  Had to read it three times; not sure I'm going to get past page seven at this rate. 

I graduated from the Dick and Jane books about 63 years ago.....I definitely want something more than "Oh, look!  See Spot run!  Run, Spot, run!" but I'm not getting any younger and I'm not sure I have time for nineteen line sentences.  Doesn't it seem that some authors are in love with hearing themselves "speak"?


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## fureverywhere (Apr 4, 2016)

I dunno...I read three news magazines a week. The Economist is for so in-depth your eyes start to spin. Time is sometimes dull but covers the top stories and then some. The Week is like popcorn sound bites of the other two. Books are like that also. You just have to decide how wordy you want to go. Then there's Newsweek, a mash up of the above.


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## Guitarist (Apr 4, 2016)

Who is the author and what is the title of the book?  You are making me curious.  When I read your thread title I thought "Victor Hugo" and "Leo Tolstoy" -- I managed to get through _War and Peac_e but not anything of Hugo's.


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## Butterfly (Apr 4, 2016)

I got through Hugo's _Hunchback of Notre Dame._ HA!   

Who are you reading, Jujube?  I'm curious, too.  I hate long, convoluted sentences, too.


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## SifuPhil (Apr 4, 2016)

Sometimes an author will become so emotionally invested in their worlds (and their words) that they'll start spinning run-on sentences like nobody's business without even noticing it which is something they should catch or at least their editor but not everyone has an editor these days because they self-publish their stuff without even reading the finished copy and they just send it off to Amazon and call it a book and wonder why three people buy it in the first year so then they go back and say "I'll do better this time!" and start writing again and guess what they end up producing more run-on sentences.


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## Guitarist (Apr 4, 2016)

Lol


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## chic (Apr 5, 2016)

jujube said:


> I just started a new book tonight. On page three there is a sentence that is twelve lines long. Twelve. It gets better, though. On page five there's one that's nineteen lines long. I had completely forgotten the first words by the time I was three quarters through the sentence. Had to read it three times; not sure I'm going to get past page seven at this rate.
> 
> I graduated from the Dick and Jane books about 63 years ago.....I definitely want something more than "Oh, look! See Spot run! Run, Spot, run!" but I'm not getting any younger and I'm not sure I have time for nineteen line sentences. Doesn't it seem that some authors are in love with hearing themselves "speak"?




I think it's about money. Authors get paid more for longer books hence the 19 line sentences.


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## SifuPhil (Apr 5, 2016)

chic said:


> I think it's about money. Authors get paid more for longer books hence the 19 line sentences.



Not always.

Many times in traditional publishing houses there are fixed advances and royalties no matter the length of the book. Now if you're a self-publisher you might charge more for the book and get a larger part of the pie.


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## Falcon (Apr 5, 2016)

They get paid by the word.  I keep scanning and flipping pages and screaming, *GET TO THE FREAKING POINT !!!"*


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