This isn’t just about novels.

I’ve just today finished playing Metal Gear Solid 4 on the Playstation 3. I’m a big fan of the Metal Gear series and, but the plot leaves much to be desired.

The Metal Gear series is very plot heavy and I’ve always said the first one was the best for it, because it was the simplest. I understood what was going on. But during the second and third games more aspects were brought into it, more characters, more twists and more complications and the fourth one tried to draw everything back together and conclude it.

It made my head spin and left me unsatisfied because it took away enjoyment from the gameplay.

Metal Gear is like the modern equivalent of Lord of the Rings. They could sum up the whole plot so much easier – but no – they jam it full of exposition and redundant dialogue which confuses the player. I must have played MGS2 a hundred times when I was a teenager and never fully understood the finer details.

You should never try to overcomplicate a plot, you will lose your reader’s interest. By the end of the game I was banging my head on a wall wishing it to end. No one wants their readers to have that reaction.

The best stories are simpler and easy to understand, you can use the rest of the words for drama and emotion, not exposition. Less is more.

Thank you for reading this post.