As I approach the end of the first draft of my new novel I am once again struck with thoughts on my own writing process.

Many sf/fantasy novels today are well north of 100,000 words and yet my own works tend to land around that mark or under. Vulcan’s Forge (available from all booksellers) was a slim 80,000 and generally well-reviewed and the feedback I got was that the exposition was deft and sufficient so it would not appear that I am shortchanging on conveying my world-building to readers.

It is simply that I write lean. This is not to say I write better or worse than authors who have much larger works. It is a function of both plot and style not of quality. I find that in my editing and even in my critiquing I tend to be an advocate of cutting out words, phrases, or sentences for more direct writing.

I think this stylistic approach is in part a development that sprung from my lifelong love of film. Cinema is by its nature a very lean form of storytelling. While producing longer books os more expensive that cost increase is nothing compared to the fantastic cost of making a feature length film. This constraint presses on production to tell their stories in the simplest, leanest, method possible that can still achieve the artistic vision of the film. It is perhaps the single most identifiable element of my voice. (Someone else would have to speak to that matter I seem constitutionally incapable of seeing hearing my own voice in my fiction.)

I am quite comfortable with my lean prose and writing and hopefully others will be as well.