Return of the Crutch Words
The next round of editing, and I encounter the return of the Crutch Words. All of those verbal ticks, habits and signs of sloppy writing that writers fall back on, usually devoid of conscious thought. …
The next round of editing, and I encounter the return of the Crutch Words. All of those verbal ticks, habits and signs of sloppy writing that writers fall back on, usually devoid of conscious thought. …
For me, the hardest part of writing fiction is fixing the prose that defies editing.
In my head, my prose powers forward with the energy of Hemmingway and the tight, sparse economy of George Orwell. It has the lyrical description of Hardy, the sparking dialog of Chandler, and the tight plotting of Agatha Christie. …
Nobody tells you about the pain of editing. How frustrating that ‘one last revision’ gets when you find another truckload of bad prose, poor punctuation and downright dumb dialogue. No one says the creative process is easy.
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A question or an obsession; how do I write a strong opening chapter? How do I hook the reader and keep them turning the page? I spend more time on opening chapters than anything else. Here’s my compilation of tips from writers and coaches from the last three years.
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Endless posts on writing but no sign of publishing a novel; what’s taking so long?
It’s not one novel but three in a series; plus a novella to offer as a reader magnet*.
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One of the sessions of last year’s writers’ summits covered revision planning with Troy Lambert. At Daniel David Wallace’s Revising and Editing Workshop, Lambert presented a solid and concise approach to revising a novel.
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Sooner or later in the process, every author faces editing the ‘crutch’ words. These are the habitual words or phrases used like crutches to prop up one’s prose. In speech, we rarely notice them; in prose, they become a hallmark of poor writing. Top of the list? Like, seemed, look, decide. And adverbs. Mostly.
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Never mind that I’m 65% through editing and still don’t know if the novel is any good: do I have a professional working draft?
A professional working draft comes at the end of one or more rounds of internal edits; no copy editing, line editing or proof reading. We’re still in the early stages. In short, does the manuscript work?
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How many drafts does it take to get out of the edit toward a published book? Book One is still in the edit, and here’s why; it’s only on its’ third draft.
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I appreciate what people mean when they say ‘it’s all in the edit.’ Of the three book series, Book One is in serious need of editing.
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