Sci Friday # 98: Visual Inspiration

Images that inspired me

Last week, I shared a photo of a beautiful bonsai tree. This week a closer look at the work involved and the scars the tiny trees suffer.

What?

These pines have wires wrapped around them when they are little more than seedlings to shape their growth into the symbols the practitioner requires. You also have to cut back on their watering to keep them from bursting when being bent.

You also need to restrict their root growth to keep them the desired size. I read about some of the bonsai trees that Japanese-Americans had tended prior to being shipped by FDR to the concentration camps during WW2. When they left, the people, to whom they trusted their bonsai, often planted them in the ground. With lots of room for root growth, the trees grew tremendously, ruining the care the practitioners had put into their art.

So, the bonsai is about massive potential shaped towards finite limits.

Why?

Stories are like bonsai trees; they have to fit within the limits imposed by story form and entertainment needs.

I used to struggle to keep my stories within the word count because I loved adding in new, interesting characters and settings that would provide readers grand experiences. The first novel I wrote was packed so tight with characters and settings that it came out like an overfull sausage. I’m pretty sure that, had I continued editing it, I would have ended up with a 600,000 word novel.

I’ve read books that long, and I always end up failing to enjoy them. They end up an endurance test for this reader because I just want to be done by the 200,000-word point. I get tired of keeping track of all the different characters, locations, and plots.

“Oh, wait. He had a brother named Roger?” searches back over two-hundred pages “Oh, crap. He did.”

And a lot of readers don’t have this amount of time to dedicate anymore. We used to have mass market paperbacks that you could finish in a weekend, but books grew fat and tall to attract readers’ eyes on brick and mortar bookstore shelves.

Anyway, back on track, Matt.

I learned how to refine my stories and meet the page counts from writing short stories.

Thank you, Raconteur Press, for the opportunity to practice. 🫡

And, thank you, Monalisa Foster, for all the great writing advice that showed me my weak points. 🙇‍♂️

Readers questions: So, getting back to long books, what’s the longest book you’ve ever read? Did you enjoy it?

Hope all y’all had a great week. Enjoy the weekend. 👋