More Editing Notes
Mar. 23rd, 2021 08:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynling- Do you really need those adverbs? Do you really?
- I’m telling you, just get rid of past perfect participles. Just do it.
- There’s no need to frame thoughts and observations as thoughts and observations in limited third-person narration. State them as facts, and the reader will infer that they’re coming from the perspective of the viewpoint character.
- New rule: You only get one (1) run-on sentence per story or chapter. Choose wisely.
- Another new rule: You only get one (1) reflexive verb per story of chapter, and you probably shouldn’t even have that one.
- Try to rethink common verbs that usually have more specific alternatives, such as “give,” “get,” “put,” “have,” and so on.
- If a paragraph would work better as two paragraphs, just break the paragraph. This is not academic writing. A paragraph should really only be about five or six sentences long.
- I’m telling you, just get rid of past perfect participles. Just do it.
- There’s no need to frame thoughts and observations as thoughts and observations in limited third-person narration. State them as facts, and the reader will infer that they’re coming from the perspective of the viewpoint character.
- New rule: You only get one (1) run-on sentence per story or chapter. Choose wisely.
- Another new rule: You only get one (1) reflexive verb per story of chapter, and you probably shouldn’t even have that one.
- Try to rethink common verbs that usually have more specific alternatives, such as “give,” “get,” “put,” “have,” and so on.
- If a paragraph would work better as two paragraphs, just break the paragraph. This is not academic writing. A paragraph should really only be about five or six sentences long.
no subject
Date: 2021-03-23 12:57 pm (UTC)YES
*sits on dragon's hoard of adverbs*
no subject
Date: 2021-03-24 11:58 am (UTC)I tend to agree with the idea that the combination of a colorful adverb and a simple verb is usually preferable to an ostentatious verb on its own, but damn I use way too many pointless adverbs. I'm especially prone to the American tendency to emphasize the degree of everything with adverbs like "really" and "very." This is so ingrained that I don't even think about it when I'm writing the first draft.
There are other adverbs I will fight for, especially for the way they look and sound on the page. "Softly" is a good one, as is "surreptitiously."