When Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie was asked to give a useful tip for writers, he said:
“Figure out if you’re a minimalist or a maximalist.”
Say more, Rushdie:
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“Minimalism would mean that you have a very tight focus on one beautiful strand of story—like one hair from the Goddess of Literature—and you turn it and you see how it catches the light,” he said. “At the other end of the spectrum, the maximalist spirit is one which tries to scoop up enormous armfulls of the world and put as much of it as you can fit in the book. [Maximalist books] are encyclopedic books, everything books.”
I can appreciate his perspective, the distinction he’s making between minimalist and maximalist styles.
But here’s another way to express it…
A simpler, more practical and actionable way, I think:
A maximalist is a writer who edits words in.
A minimalist is a writer who edits words out.
Salman Rushdie, by his own admission, is a maximalist: when he edits a draft, he’s seeking opportunities to add detail, to add information, to add context. Addition is at the center of a maximalist’s work.
Whereas a writer like Raymond Carver, for example, practiced minimalism: when he edited his work, his goal was to delete anything superfluous: words, even punctuation marks. “I know I’m finished with a story when I find myself putting back punctuation marks I’d previously deleted,” he said.
There is a middle ground, of course. You can be neither. But to Rushdie’s point, embracing a side is helpful. In my experience as a minimalist, it makes the editing process easier, more streamlined and predictable. Over time, I think it also strengthened my voice, making my style more pronounced and recognizable.
So I agree: you should pick one.
“But there isn’t a right answer,” said Rushdie. “The only right answer is which is right for you.”
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