The Extra Padding

[Thomas Grant Bruso]

Why is it that so many books are filled with pages after pages of extra padding, or fluff? Authors write an excess of flashbacks, or litter their books with complete rubbish just to make a quota of 300 pages or more. I read a lot, but I find myself skipping over dialogue, or prose, that I find doesn't prolong the story or even contribute to the plot. And yet, these books still get published. I find that 200 pages is sufficient for many of these books, mysteries specifically. What do you think?

[Jon Loomis]

Like Steven, I'm heavily invested in my setting: there's a lot to see, hear and (for better or worse) smell in Provincetown, and one of the ways I judge my own success with these books is in how well I have or haven't gotten that atmosphere across. My first job, though, is to let the characters be their entertaining selves, which means letting them eat, drink, tell jokes, have sex, etc. whenever there's a down moment in the investigation (even when there's not). In fact I'm really more about the "fluff" than the plot--as the poet Mark Doty said, no such thing as too many sequins.

[Donna Carrick]

Hi, Jon. Setting, character, plot and a unique POV are all the hallmarks of good writing. Actual page count, not so much. When I received your book from Amazon, I didn't think it was too long or too short. It just had a fabulous cover and what looked like a good story. It's beside my bed waiting to be read in its turn, and I'm quite sure I'll enjoy it very much.

[Thomas Grant Bruso]

I am not finger-pointing at any specific author here. To each their own, I guess. But like Clay, I am drilled with the notion, "to get in, tell the story fast and hard, and get out" from my journalism days, writing for weekly magazines and newspapers.

[Sandra Parshall]

I doubt that many writers ask themselves, "Where can I insert some meaningless passages that don't move the story or illuminate character?" What's in a book is usually what the writer believes is necessary. Readers may, and often do, have different opinions. I have one friend who wants all mysteries to open with the murder -- I'm talking about the first PARAGRAPH -- and move swiftly to the conclusion, with absolutely nothing about the protagonists' personal lives and minimal description of setting and characters. I wouldn't enjoy reading book after book written that way. Yet I become impatient with too many digressions. So it's a balancing act. These days many readers want more than a bare-bones story, and most authors want to write books that are more than that.

[Dan Coleman]

I think maybe it's the literary reader, as opposed to the genre reader, who expects more of a journey with the story. The murder up front might be too startling, too quick. It's like the way some folks look differently at food; some like a dining experience, others just want to kill the hunger pang.

[Thomas Grant Bruso]

I, too, want more than a bare-bones story. But I've read slim books from wonderful writers who get to the point. Ross MacDonald and Georges Simenon immediately spring to mind. Their books are short and they succeed in entertaining me without long-winded prose of what the weather is like, for example, or how somebody is feeling in, say, two chapters. IMO, it's a filler. Why does an author have to use two chapters to make their point that the weather is overcast and rainy? I don't care. Get to the point of the story. Unless, of course, the weather is the story, in which case I concur.

Another example: Karin Fossum’s newest police procedural, THE WATER’ S EDGE, comes in at 227 pages--a skeletal work for her. It is merely ninety pages shorter than her usual yarns. In those 227 pages, not one page is filler. Every character and subplot, every red-herring and twist and turn, has a purpose. In other words, there is no bullshit. That's what I like.

[Dan Coleman]

Right on. I'm with you on that.

[Dan Coleman]

Aside from the other legitimate reasons mentioned here, I suspect publishers want something substantial enough to help justify the asking price for books. It's hard to ask $28-30 for a hardcover book under two hundred pages, or even three hundred. Of course, they do it.

[D.R. MacMaster]

When I first attempted to write a novel I was originally intimidated by the 100,000 word count limit. I thought "How the hell am I going to make that?" Especially when I had first written the story the novel came from as a 120 page screenplay.

But instead of padding, I found myself taking characters who in the script were just background, into people, and created little vignettes that showed how the events of the plot and the actions of the main characters affected their lives. I also found myself expanding on characterizations and themes that I had only glossed over in the script. So far, people who've read it love the little background vignettes, that I carefully structured around major plot elements, and I think the book was better for them.

I also tend to agree that the major publishers are hoping to justify their costs through bulk, and Wal-Mart's little forced price war can only hurt the industry. I recently lost my hometown's only bookstore, leaving Wal-Mart the only major book source, that is if you like Dan Brown and Twilight, and I don't see the selection improving with that slashing margins past the bone.

[Thomas Grant Bruso]

Your point hits home, D.R. I've just settled down to write my third story, and I'm going to take heed to your suggestion. I'm going to use the background folks, the suspects, in the story and create a life for all four families in different chapters throughout the book. That will tie everyone back to the slaying of my fictional priest. Thanks!

[Kris Neri]

I'm not seeing much padding in the books I read. I love a richer, fuller mystery, with a complex plot, interwove with good subplots. That mysteries are more character-plot driven today makes them longer, and lots of readers love that.

[JackBludis]

I share this complaint. The reason there are padded books several of the contributors here have already stated in the same or similar words: publishers want more pages so they can justify that $25. (American) price tag.

Another thing to consider is that although many of us like, clean prose without a lot of description or detail, that is not what everyone likes. What I do like is a sense of "you are there" without being bogged down with a flower by flower description of the garden or a street by street description of the town, or a pore by pore description of a character.

It's my opinion that the ideal length for a mystery is the novella of 20,000 to 30,000 words.

But that's just me.