Simple. Brief. Succinct. That’s the kind of style you need to cultivate. You don’t want your readers or listeners having to do a double take. If the listener can’t ask you to pause when you are in full flow, they lose the next part of what you’re saying. That is because their brain is stuck puzzling over a tricky bit. Words frozen on the page are a one-way form of communication, therefore make sure that you are being crystal clear.
Think about the language you’re reading this book in, English. It’s an international language. That’s an advantage, as you can get more readers. However, there is a disadvantage too, in that a majority of the world does not use English as their first language. That means that playing around with words too much, will result in parts of your work ‘going over the heads’ of some of your readers.
You want your reader to stick with you. I understand that eBook sales work on how many pages a reader gets through. If they just dip in to the first few pages, then you won’t make a sale. Start off with a punchy opener. A punter standing in a bookshop will not take the book to the till and buy it, if the scene description on page one is boring, boring, boring.
Short is sweet.
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