Friday, June 19, 2009
Archive of ‘Editing’ category
Woohoo! Another Friday and a tighter manuscript, if you’ve been cutting.
Today’s WORDS I HATE is another group: CONJUNCTIONS. Now, before you begin revolting by throwing your old Schoolhouse Rock cassettes at me, let me explain.
Conjunctions are very important in a writing sense. They either join two like sentences/phrases (AND, OR) or they create opposition (BUT). Yeah, there are more conjunctions, but in my experience of reading published works, these are the biggest offenders.
Here’s the problem: in writing, it’s very easy–too easy–in the draft stages to continue a thought, a description or narrative (remember, these rules don’t necessarily apply in dialogue, unless you have a character spewing out conjunctions just to hear herself talk) on and on until we find the meat of our meaning. I’d actually encourage overuse of conjunctions in the draft stages as it helps to keep going on a tangent to get down to the real story.
However, at the publishing level, that doesn’t fly. If a reader reads and needs to take a breath to finish a sentence, or has to look back to the start of the sentence to remember who’s talking and what the conversation is about, you’ve got too many conjunctions.
Again, the simplest way to eliminate unnecessary conjunctions is to read and read aloud your manuscript. Doing a find and replace search will lead to a headache because many conjunctions fill a need and move story along. You’ll have more conjunctions that you leave in than you take out, but the ones you take out will make the most difference to your story.
How’d it go this week? How much did you change, chop and learn about your story?
Thursday, June 18, 2009
6/18 WIP Tip: Editing Out the Words I Hate, part 3
Today it isn’t so much a word itself rather than a verb form:
TO BE
The main reason you need to cut TO BE, in all its forms (am, are, is, was, were and their accompanying tenses) is because using TO BE in a narrative sense (not if it’s in dialogue–or even as a flashback. I can accept those two) tells the reader what happened/is happening/will happen. Any good writer worth their weight in fountain pen ink knows the kiss of death is to tell, not show a story.
I’ve put down books in the first chapter, never to return to reading them again because too much TO BE yanks me right out of the story and shows amateurism.
Consider a few examples? These are from the next book in my TBR pile:
He was dying.
Ok, maybe I’ll let that one slide as well. But what about…
The will to live slipped a little from his bones each day.
The world around him grew fuzzy. Distant. Foreign.
…or…
They were funny.
What about…
Christine laughed so hard her ribs ached.
Laughter lightened Christine’s mood.
Since Stephan’s illness, Christine had almost forgotten how to laugh. Now, there was no way to hold her back.
(a bit lengthy but we get a lot more detail about the story rather than saying “they were funny”)
Your turn. Wipe out the TO BEs in your story and see how much you can add to the character, plot and setting when you get specific.
How did you make your story better?
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
6/17 WIP Tip: Editing Out the Words I Hate, part 2
Second on the list of major offenders for WORDS I HATE is actually a 2fer:
NICE and PRETTY.
Gag me. Now, I can’t take credit for hating the word nice all by myself. One of my best friends in high school used to get ticked with me for using the word NICE a little too often. He said (and I quote) “There are so many other words to use except NICE. Everything can be NICE. Use a better word.”
IMHO, PRETTY is the same way. If I use pretty (as an adjective, not an adverb), I always eliminate it and nail down the description with one single detail to add something to my story.
Have your editing shears? Red pen? Get out your story and find all the NICEs and PRETTYs. Don’t cut them out–rather, rework them to be more specific and add more punch to your prose. You can do this!
Share an example of a change by making a comment if you like. I’m always up for a good example of how editing makes a story stronger!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
6/16 WIP Tip: Editing Out The Words I Hate, Part 1
I’m a cranky reader. I hate stumbling over unnecessary words in a story or manuscript that serve no purpose. I’m such a word nerd! I even have a list of WORDS I HATE in a notebook.
Number one offender? THAT. I hate the word THAT with all my might. Too many writers use it needlessly and could speed up the reading/enjoyment process for the rest of us if they’d chop it out.
Your job today is to go through your WIP, or even a finished story, and eliminate all of the unnecessary THATs cluttering your prose. Even better, read it out loud, find where you stumble and cut, cut, cut. Unmercifully. You’ll feel better, I promise you THAT. UGH!
What words do you hate most when using your editorial eye? Do share!
It's pretty simple, really. I'm a writer who loves writing about writing, and sharing all the tricks of the trade with other writers. And when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. I have a hunch you know what I mean :)