TL;DR

The second part of my last post is about those walls of text that we all encounter in some books that fill us with despair.  I have to read all that? we think.  Geez, that'll take forever.

TL;DR stands for Too Long; Didn't Read, and it's a common phenomenon when readers encounter the wall of text.  Most people will not read the whole thing.  They'll read the first and last sentences, and maybe glance over the wall to see if anything stands out, but most will skip on by and figure they can catch up down the road if they missed anything.

TL;DR occurs when writers are overly excited about what they have to say and forget to take a breath.  Those text walls come off as breathless rapidity.  Since one of our goals is to get people to read what we wrote(we wouldn't have written it if it wasn't important, after all), we need to sometimes slow down.  The easiest way to do so is with simple paragraph breaks.  Take the following examples:

He knew several bones in his hand were broken, but he still tried to fight.  He had no idea where Chris was, but as he got to his knees, he felt a sharp blow to the back of his head and the trickle of flowing blood.  One of the attackers reached for him, and Seth managed to flip the gun in his hand and squeeze off three rounds.  He heard a loud screech and his hand broke free.  He scrambled to his feet and took off running.  His heart beat faster and he became vaguely aware of the throbbing in his left hand, but his adrenaline was flowing too freely to let that stop him.  He squeezed through several cars and sprinted to the chain link fence by the ballpark across the way.  He could feel them behind him, like a pack of wolves chasing a deer.  He scrambled over the fence, ignoring the single strand of barbed wire across the top that pierced his already damaged hand.  When he hit the ground on the other side, he felt a new source of blood running down his wrist.  He looked back to see the enemy jumping the gate in one fluid motion.  It was disconcerting to see the grace with which they flew.  Belatedly, he thought about Chris and Simon.  Simon, he reasoned, should be safe, but he wondered if Chris escaped.  He sprinted past several darkened trailers proclaiming their treasures – cotton candy, peanuts, beer, etc.  Seth came to an abrupt halt and tried to bring up his gun as his original target floated down in front of him.  The vampire easily knocked the gun aside.  Seth turned and tried to run in the opposite direction.  However, several more – he didn’t know if it was three or four – were rapidly approaching from that direction.  He took a step backwards and turned again, looking wildly for another escape route.  But there wasn’t one.  No one was running anymore.  Footsteps echoing off of the walls in the ballpark were the only sounds left.  One of the vampires grabbed him from behind in a massive bear hug.  He’d been nervous during fights before, but facing down four vampires generated something he hadn’t since the night his brother was attacked.  Fear.

Now compare that with this:

            He knew several bones in his hand were broken, but he still tried to fight.  He had no idea where Chris was, but as he got to his knees, he felt a sharp blow to the back of his head and the trickle of flowing blood.

            One of the attackers reached for him, and Seth managed to flip the gun in his hand and squeeze off three rounds.  He heard a loud screech and his hand broke free.

            He scrambled to his feet and took off running.  His heart beat faster and he became vaguely aware of the throbbing in his left hand, but his adrenaline was flowing too freely to let that stop him.  He squeezed through several cars and sprinted to the chain link fence by the ballpark across the way.  He could feel them behind him, like a pack of wolves chasing a deer.

            He scrambled over the fence, ignoring the single strand of barbed wire across the top that pierced his already damaged hand.  When he hit the ground on the other side, he felt a new source of blood running down his wrist.

            He looked back to see the enemy jumping the gate in one fluid motion.  It was disconcerting to see the grace with which they flew.

            Belatedly, he thought about Chris and Simon.  Simon, he reasoned, should be safe, but he wondered if Chris escaped.

            He sprinted past several darkened trailers proclaiming their treasures – cotton candy, peanuts, beer, etc.  Seth came to an abrupt halt and tried to bring up his gun as his original target floated down in front of him.  The vampire easily knocked the gun aside.  Seth turned and tried to run in the opposite direction.

            However, several more – he didn’t know if it was three or four – were rapidly approaching from that direction.  He took a step backwards and turned again, looking wildly for another escape route.

            But there wasn’t one.  No one was running anymore.  Footsteps echoing off of the walls in the ballpark were the only sounds left.

             One of the vampires grabbed him from behind in a massive bear hug.  He’d been nervous during fights before, but facing down four vampires generated something he hadn’t since the night his brother was attacked.

            Fear.

The paragraph breaks alone make the second example much easier to read. If I encountered the first example, I'd sigh and try to plow through, but I think I'd make it about halfway(at most) before I gave up and moved on. The second example, however, flowed better and didn't make me wince when I saw it.

Yes, there's more to getting around TL;DR, such as shortening what you have to say, but the paragraph break is the quickest and makes the most sense, especially if you feel you absolutely must say something.  Once you've gotten past that, then you can go back with that chainsaw mentioned in the last post and cut.  The two have to work in tandem or readers will cut you out.