Why is everything so long? I came home after a day at work, made it through two hours of Aquaman, and shut it off, because I was exhausted. Good movie, but too damn long.
Browsing through the library the other day, I saw several new books by first-time authors as thick as The Lord of the Rings. Too damn long, especially if I don’t know you and you haven’t earned the 20 hours it would take to read that tome. All that tells me is you can’t edit your book for clarity, and neither can your editor. And don’t even get me started on what ‘established authors’ are allowed to print. Someone could hurt themselves carrying around those 900 page tomes. Sigh.
I’ve sat through a miniseries, riveted for the first five episodes, and pumped to make it through the last two, and then felt horrified to learn there’s four more. Inevitably, the plot won’t stretch that far and you get at least two episodes of filler. Or they introduce a bunch of unnecessary subplots and characters that turn an excellent four episode miniseries into a mediocre seven hour one. (Here’s looking at you, Shadow & Bone. Recut the three plots separately. I’ll just rewatch the Darkling one, thanks.)
Maybe working as an editor who streamlines the hell out of my own books has made me hard to please. Or baby, I was born this way. But it seems like our society has an excess of bloat. We eat way too much, drink too much, stare at television screens too much, spend too much time on our phone, own too much stuff, and create too long of epics, often due to unnecessary characters. That’s my other main complaint. There’s such a rush to follow Game of Thrones across every genre, each television show must have 20 main characters whose stories get spread out over six seasons’ worth of subplots. In the case of some of them, like LOST, the first season is spectacular, but bringing in 20 more new characters in season two ruins a good thing.
Some of the best movies out there are tight. You reach the end and want more. That’s better than checking your watch and sighing when you realize this thing is another 25 minutes long.
Do we not know when enough is enough?
The Sacred in the Secular 
I share your pet peeve. Editing is a god-send and humility a virtue.
I’ve had this feeling a lot lately I miss when movies were like 1 and 30 mins at most.
I think it depends on the quality and intent. The extended versions of Lord of the Rings are absolutely epic works, but an unimaginable level of craft and artistry went into them (we liked watching the making of them). But when its just long because trying to be deep and failing (my last experience was the PD James mysteries, banal and boring and dull and I don’t want your third rate self-indulging “philosophy” lady and where is the British wit?!), I don’t even want ANY of the work.
And don’t get me wrong, I don’t need everything to be deep and artistic (I watch Hallmark and read Heyer for crying out loud), but a quick (and self-aware, this part is VERY important) bit of fluff is far more pleasing to me than a long work that is a shallow puddle trying to be an ocean. Honest silly over dishonest “depth.”
It does. LotR’s EE’s are good because they add in characterization that fleshes out the characters (and sometimes, unnecessary battle scenes), but they took something like 15 years to adapt, and it shows in the high level of craftsmanship. It’s why you compare them to the rush-job that is The Hobbit and they are clearly superior works of art.
I’d call the other kind of long — pretentious. Especially when it’s obvious that the author thinks too highly of themselves. I won’t name names, but I recall trying to plow through an award-winning novel about 900 pages long and quickly getting annoyed with the “tone” in addition to how SLOW it moved.
Same. I watched Green Lantern last night on Netflix. Less than 2 hours. Punchy characters (and not too many of them). Wasted time on a sub-villain, but it was enjoyable popcorn fare so I didn’t care. But Aquaman for me was just like… this is cool, but it feels SO LONG. Shorter movies know what they are (a brief repose) and own it. xD
I very much agree with you.
Occasionally, I’ll wish that a movie or TV show or book were longer than they are. But a lot of TV shows tend to outstay their welcome. And I really dislike how there are so few standalone novels published these days (at least in the genres I read). Everything has to be a duology or a trilogy or a series! Now, sometimes multiple books are necessary. Often they are. But I wonder how many books are stretched into a series (or have a series hastily tacked on after the first book’s success) when it’s not really warranted.
An annoying thing is when I’m watching a TV show and I only care about one or two plot threads, but I have to suffer through all the others. 😛
Anyway, great post!
Yes. That’s another excellent point. Most television series seem to hit their stride in season two and stay good maybe for four seasons. Then either the sexual tension fades between the leads (because they are now together) or they start repeating plot lines. Shows also tend to evolve a lot over time, and sometimes lose their way. I was thinking just the other day how the first Vampire Diaries season was solid. Good characters, and SCARY endings. Each episode ended in a way that made you want to see the next episode. It was good for about four seasons, but that’s when usually half the cast leaves, so they must introduce new people you don’t care about.
Trilogies are terrible, especially when they don’t complete a story within the first book. I like a good series, but I want a main plot wrapped up within the same volume, and for the next one to start a new plot. Whenever I slog through a 600 page book, only to get to the last page and realize — I have to buy/read another tome to see how this ends, I never do it.
It’s kind of like… The Hobbit movies. Planned as two films, then stretched into three, which meant PJ did a lot of padding. This caused him to get general bloat and it impacted the entire series. I LOVE The Hobbit, but I’m also super aware of its flaws. It’s way longer than it needs to be, and that’s the same problem with a lot of things.
YES to the not caring about some plots in a TV show. Hence why less is more.
New characters in TV shows are sooooo hit and miss. Like, I skipped big chunks of Lost season 2 because I just did not care about the Tailies. At all. (Except maybe Libby because she and Hurley were cute together. And Ana Lucia won me over by the end.) But yeah…I don’t envy show writers who have to introduce new characters in a well-liked show.
“Whenever I slog through a 600 page book, only to get to the last page and realize — I have to buy/read another tome to see how this ends…” – You just described one of my worst nightmares. 😂
Yep, I love The Hobbit trilogy too. But there are several parts that really bore me. (Most of the loooooooooong fight scenes. Like the orc attack in Laketown in Desolation of Smaug? Unnecessary!)
Lost always loses me around season three. The cast just got too big, and they had boring plots going for some of them.
I think that’s why I don’t read 900 page tomes unless I already know I like the material (saw the movie, liked it, figure the book is better).
The Hobbit… yeah, the battles are too long, the fighting scene in Laketown, and the extended edition where the dwarves wander around lost in the woods for 20 minutes. xD
Yup, I agree.
People today often complain that “old movies move too slowly,” but old movies are generally 90 to 120 minutes. If you go past 2 hours, you are a Long Movie and you had better earn that epic status. And so many classic Hollywood movies don’t even hit the 90-minute mark — especially the B movies, but even some A-listers. They give you one story and then go home. Which I love. One story at a time is all I need.
Yup. There’s a certain pleasure gotten out of a 90 minute movie. One story is an excellent point. I often think that about some epics, even those deemed as classics, especially where their plots are SORT OF connected, but not SUPER connected. Like Anna Karenina. You could rip her plot out and create a separate novel from Katherina and Constantine without too much trouble, and you’d have way less characters. (Plus, I think everyone loves one plot over the other one, when you have multiple plots going, so people think: SIGH, THESE PEOPLE AGAIN?) Just make it into two books. 😛
One HUGE contributor to bloated running times for comic book movies seems to be multiple villains. You only need one. Did Aquaman need two? No. It added nothing meaningful, just padded the running time.
One of my favorite movies is Red Eye. A tight 90 minutes. Intense. Lean. Mean. Excellent. One story, one simple plot, one bad guy. Watching it makes you want to watch it again. It’s just that good.
Just popping in here to HEARTILY agree about the Aquaman movie and its one-too-many villains. 😉
YES. Not to mention all the unnecessary fight scenes that all last 10 minutes too long. I finally wound up hitting “skip to the next scene.”
“Here’s looking at you, Shadow & Bone. Recut the three plots separately. I’ll just rewatch the Darkling one, thanks.”
MWAHAHAHA! And I’ll just watch the Crows one, and we’ll both be happy. 😉
I think in this way, writing flash fiction has been really good practice, because it’s pushed me to think about what’s really essential and what’s not. Cutting out the unnecessary words and unnecessary characters to get to the heart of the story.
I think we both agree that series would be better off without the third subplot, which goes nowhere and does nothing for hours (ie, two people on a ship, two people wandering around in the snow, two people eventually hooking up with the other groups, booooring).
Yeah. Editing was good practice for me. Learning that each discussion should further the plot or give character development, that subplot all need to fit into the main plot, etc. Stuff that APPARENTLY not enough writers care to think about. 😛
Yup. There’s a reason why the original novel only revealed that particular bit of backstory AFTER we had already met the characters and seen them actively engaged in a new, exciting plot. It’s not the way to INTRODUCE those characters.
Apparently, yes. 😛
Yes. 😛
Sometimes I wonder if writers ever actually read something and go — this is boring even me, it needs to come out! 😛