Tag Archive | editing

Author Confessions: The Blank Page

May18
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: The Blank Page

One of the biggest challenges for an author is exactly what I faced when I sat down at my laptop to write this post. The Blank Page. 

All that white can be intimidating, or all that black if you write in dark mode (black background and white letters which can be kinder to the eyes). That’s why even in real life, a blank wall in a house is calling for decoration. When we moved into our tiny apartment while building a house, I determined that I would only put one hole in the wall, and that was for the clock we are conditioned to look to to check the time. I’ve kept to to that. But the white walls bother me and seem so–sterile.

It’s probably why we can’t seem to keep any surface from also having things one it, whether it is a decoration on the dining room table, or all the stuff we drop on it when we get home.

There is something in the human condition that rebells against that stark emptiness. Probably because God created us for beauty and color. Texture and depth. But we also need space and emptiness.

The blank page is too much emptiness, just as a lot of walls with no color, design, or decoration. Too much, however, becomes clutter. My documents in my word processor are automatically set for a one inch margin. When I write I usually have double spaced as well, especially when writing a story. Filling a blank space is good but too much is difficult for the brain to process.

The beauty of writing in this day and age is editing, deleting, can be done with minimal effort. I was working on edits the other day and slashed over 3,000 words from a novella. For comparison this post has 775 words. That’s a lot of words! The stuff I deleted will make the story better according to my editors and I agree with them. I printed it out without the removed words so I can read it again and make sure I didn’t make any other mistakes. No rewriting by hand. Technology can be such a blessing.

When writers start writing, however, it can be a daunting thing to look at the blank page. Sure we can put in the capter number, a header and insert page numbers, but those things do not make a story come to life. Neither do the margins, although lack of them can be bothersome for a reader.

There is such a thing as free-form writing where the author writes whatever comes to mind. Any thought. Journalling can be like this where the blank page becomes filled with all the random thoughts that occupy it. Sometimes getting those things out clears the clutter for the good stuff that make up a text: sentences and paragraphs a reader might want to read.

I journal on a daily basis and sometimes it’s brief and short. I have an audio diary that I will often speak into on my phone where I can just ramble (I talk like I’m talking to God) about whatever is on my heart. It goes faster as not every thought that crosses my mind is something my husband or friends might want to listen to. But if it is on my heart then I figure God doesn’t mind hearing it.

The blank page can be hard for authors but the reality is this: You can’t edit a blank page. With modern technology writings can be saved in other documents to be used for a later time, or forgotten which is more likely to happen to me. We can easily delete. Even writing a blog I have started some that sat in draft mode for a while before I finally decided they weren’t worth sharing with the world wide web, or whomever visits my blog.

Do you want to write? Then write. Don’t worry about the rules, you can learn those later. No matter what your age, we are in a world where re-writes are so much easier. I remember grade school and high school–before computers–and all the paper crumpled up on the floor. Don’t let the blank page intimidate you into pouring out your thoughts and ideas on paper. Even if no one else sees it, writing is beneficial. My journaling is with pen and paper. The audio journal is digital. Thankfully, word processing has made writing books easier than ever.

So whether you’re writing a letter to a friend, a thank you note, a prayer, or the next best-selling novel, write. Don’t let the blank page win.

 

Author Confessions: Stumbling Blocks in Fiction Part 1

Feb16
Reading Time: 5 minutes

Author Confessions: Stumbling Blocks in Fiction Part 1

After writing last weeks post which you can find here, I started thinking of stumbling blocks in fiction. I’m going to focus mostly on Christian fiction as there are differences between that and the secular marketplace.

I used to be a reader that if I read the back page and liked the concept and checked out the book–I would read it to the end. It wasn’t too many years into adulthood that I decided it wasn’t worth my time if I wasn’t enjoying the story. Readers now are being more particular.

Here are some examples of stumbling blocks that authors sometimes overlook but will possibly cause a less interested reader to move past and finish a book. These are also things that as an editor might cause me to reject submisson.

Slow start

Sometimes an author can get caught up in writing very descriptive scenes with eloquent words that really say nothing but they sound nice. And this can go on for more than a paragraph where as a reader, I’m left wondering, “What is this story about? Who is it about? When does this take place?” Now having said that, in older literature this was the norm. Creative writing and beautifully crafted scenese before you ever truly understand what is going on in the story. That doesn’t work as well now.

Annoying characters

Characters should be likable. Thus says the author who has enjoyed quirky and sometimes annoying characters as Sherlock, Doc Martin, and House. Characters should have some relatable qualities that make them likable, or at least tolerable. Quirky isn’t necessarily annoying but that depends upon the person. A character might have some personalilty defect but if the reader doesn’t sense that they might change as the story progresses, they are not likely to stick with the story.

Too many people or complicated names

I’ve read science fiction and that genre is spectacular for the made up and sometimes difficult to pronounce names. I had a character in Truffles and Traffic initially called Benedict and one of the editors told me that was too harsh sounding so I changed it to Benjamin, which wasn’t a painful decision as it’s one of my favorite names, and that was before I met my husband. When I wrote the book Pesto and Potholes, Antonio has a large family and I actually had a genogram of all the relations in the order in which they were related to help me keep the story straight. Thankfully, only a few made significant enough appearances that it was easier for the reader to not worry about how all the rest were connected. I wanted the family tree in the book but was told I  couldn’t do that. :-(.  Stumbling over names or having names too similar even, can make it hard for the reader to navigate the story, and anything that pulls the reader out of the story, even to look back to see who is connected to who, is frowned upon.

The story doesn’t move along

Stories that drag from the start or start out gang-busters and then fizzle will challenge the most ardent reader. I find this even when we are watching movies or television series that if they start out slow and the pace plods along, my husband will tell me to find something else. Maybe it gets better by episode three but they lost us in the first fifteen minutes. The same is true for a piece of fiction. The first sentence, paragraph, five pages, might determine whether a reader keeps going. As an editor, I’m often generus enough to read through chapter 3. When editing a book its possible that the real story starts there and I’ll need to tell the author to revise and delete the first two chapters. When I started out writing, I had to do this myself when I realized my error and a kind mentor pointed it out to me. Nothing wasted, but it would have been if it had gone to print that way.

I also read story submissions to the end. I don’t rely on the author’s synopsis. I’ve had books cross my laptop that started out strong but fell apart quickly. Huge disappointment but I’m glad I didn’t offer a contract to them. It would have meant a lot more work for me and the author because the book wasn’t ready.

Time and place are ambiguous

Who, what, where, when, and why, are not only key words for a journalist, but for an author as well. If I can’t tell if the book is historical, sci-fi, fantasy, or contemporary, right away, it is a red-flag and annoys me to no end. Where is it taking place? Is it in America, Africa, Germany, Cuba, Mars, a space-station? Is it during the civil war, WWII, the 80’s, or 2278? If the author can’t tell me that in plain words or by their description, I get incredibly frustrated.  Thankfully, that’s only crossed my desk a handful of times and they were a quick rejection but I did give them my complaint so they could do better. It’s not something I’m required to do but when it’s stuff like that and I’m irritated enough, I will, and hopefully save some other poor reader that frustration.

Main character does foolish things

Now we all do foolish things at times. Maybe I should say stupid things? These have to be pretty big or perhaps dangerous and perhaps even triggering. Not every story is for every reader but no reader wants to spend the six or more hours reading a book, yelling at the character “No!” time and time again. It gets exhausting.

Lack of change or growth in the main character

Characters should change through the story, whether it’s an emotional growth, relationship choices, spiritual, or simply gaining in wisdom that provides a benefit for themselves and others. If the character ends the story in the same state he or she started out, it will leave a bad taste in the mind of the reader.

I realize I’ve talked about some of these things over the years and this is a different, if not negative, approach to the stumbling blocks in fiction. It’s not a conclusive list by any means. But even as a reader I bet you’ll be more aware when you pick up the next book and either you’ll be cheering for the author because they got it right and you’ll enjoy the story, or you’ll find yourself as frustrated as I do when these things happen.

Reminder, I’m not perfect and I’ve made these mistakes in the past. And I might make them in the future. I hope I’ve grown enough as an author that these stumbling blocks in fiction don’t show up in my stories, and if you find them there (because this can be subjective) then I humbly apologize.

 

Author Confessions: A Firm Foundation (Part III)

Nov3
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Author Confessions: A Firm Foundation (Part III)

Now that I’ve written about the solid need of a firm foundation for life and faith, I figured I should apply this to the craft of writing because it does have application here as well, and it’s good for readers and writers to understand this. You can read the previous two posts here and here. 

There are basic principles of writing that need to be adhered to, unfortuntately for an author, those sometimes change over time when it comes to grammar and style. I will still have people argue with me over not having two spaces between a period and the start of the next sentence but that changed a long time ago and I still sometimes unintentionally add that extra space out of habit.

Any writer needs to understand core principles of story telling, that is true, and they can vary depending on whether you are writing for the secular or Christian market. You can still have a perfectly written book that will not get contracted if the content is not saleable, redundant, offensive, or in the Christian market: theologically in error.

There is a wide variety of faiths out there though so how does an author navigate that? For instance, I had an author who approached me about a story where the female protagonist was a pastor. I told her that personally I had an issue with that and that so would my publisher. I’m not putting down female pastors by any means, but my understanding of Scripture makes that a hard thing to swallow. We brought in a literary agent to discuss the concept and he agreed that for the purpose of selling a novel, there were some markets that would not promote a book like that due to the theological differences between denomoniations. She would not want me as her editor if I had an issue with that.

That was also the reason I wouldn’t write Amish romances when my agent asked me to. “They sell!” She insisted. I told her that while I understood the popularity of Amish inspirational romances, I had a difficult time theologically with some of the Amish which can seem cultish to me. Now that I’ve learned how horrible they are with dogs in their puppy mills, the only way I’d write one would be as one exposing that kind of thing, not romanticizing that religion. I have two traumatized puppies who were going to be killed by the Amish: one didn’t produce enough pupplies and the other one they couldn’t sell. Both are sweet loving dogs who have enriched our lives and challenged us as we have navigated helping them heal from the abuses they endured.

So how does a writer navigate the wide range of denomoniations when writing a faith-based story?

  • Avoid naming any specific denomination.
  • Stay away from denominational practices that are not salvation related and potentially divisive (infant baptism, speaking in tongues to name a few).
  • Focus on the individual faith journey of the main characters sticking close to Scripture when possible even if you never cite a Bible verse.
  • Avoid promoting or glorifying any sinful behavior: drinking, murder, sex outside of marriage, swearing, drug use. That doesn’t mean those can’t be elements of a story or journey to Christ, but they cannot be viewed as desirable.

I need to also mention that authors themselves need to try to live a life that would glorify God. People are watching us and while many of the readers of my books may have never met me face to face, there are those who have, and I might meet some and have no idea that they have read my books and will be making sure I’m trying to live out the faith I write about, even if my characters are not real-life people.

There are authors who have gone astray and when it has become public, usually a more well-known person, their books have been pulled by their publisher and distributers. Not that this hasn’t happend in the Christian music industry as well.

This all goes back to my the original post where we need to be connected to other people lest we become a stumbling block, or an irritant to others. We live our lives best (and write best) when we engage in community.

It is also wise for readers to be evaluating the writing they are injesting. There are several non-fiction authors I will not read because of errors in their theology. Sure, they made lots of money and gained fame through their work, but that doesn’t mean they were theologically correct. I may not always get it right either so I’m not casting stones. We are all held accountable for how we handle the gospel that has been entrusted to us, whether we ever write a book or not. So be wise in all things and make sure you stand on the firm foundation of God’s Word in all you do.

I’ll keeping seeking to do that as well.

Author Confessions: Hold On To Your Eyeball (Moving Body Parts)

Dec9
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Author Confessions: Hold On To Your Eyeball (Moving Body Parts)

I’m taking a little departure from dangerous emotions (yes, there are more of them!) to do something more specifically writing but does relate to real life because it is how many American’s talk. Autonomously moving body parts in fiction is usually discouraged but doesn’t mean they won’t creep onto the page.

I was explaining this to some non-writer friends and I used the explanation of “His eyes rolled.” as an example. See here the eyes are acting on their own volition which is different from “He rolled his eyes.”

This resulted in some hilarity because it was like the eyes rolled almost like a meatball from the song On Top Of Spaghetti. So we revised the song.

On top of spaghetti all covered with cheeseI lost my poor eyeball when somebody sneezed
It rolled off the table, it rolled on the floorAnd then my poor eyeball rolled out of the door
It rolled in the garden and under a bushAnd then my poor eyeball was nothing but mush.
The mush was as tasty as tasty could be,And early next summer it grew to a tree.
The tree was all covered with beautiful mossIt grew great big eyeballs and tomato sauce.
So if you eat spaghetti all covered with cheese,Hold on to your eyeball and don’t ever sneeze.
Now in spite of us laughing at this ridiculousness, it got even funnier when I learned that my husband had never heard this song! If you click on the song title above you’ll hear a  version of the song with the original lyrics.
So pardon my detour there, but sometimes we just need to be a little silly about these things as they are funny if you think of them literally. Here are some examples:
  • Her eyebrows raised. (Really, raised what? The roof? An objection?) Better: She raised her eyebrows.
  • Her arm swung freely. (Is this like on a swingset?) Better: She swung her arm.
  • Her head turned. (Now I got Friday the 13th vibes). Better: She turned her head to the right.
  • His sad eyes arrested her. (Did they have handcuffs?) Better: His sad gaze arrested her attention.
There could be countless more examples. Let your characters in your writing be the ones making their body’s move instead of them going off on their own as if to steal the scene of your story. Yes, it can be creative but I was recently reading a book by Yakov Smirnoff about how confusing some of the language was as he learned English after moving to the United States, and while it is funny, it can be challenging to a less skilled linguest who might be reading. So be careful as you write, and no matter what, hold on to your eyeballs!

Author Confessions: To Be or not to Be

Oct21
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Author Confessions: To Be or not to Be

I was at a writer’s group years ago and another writer told me that we should avoid any version of “be” words: is, am/be, was/were/would.

That’s kind of like deleting the word “the” isn’t it? If you remember my blog post from September 2, 2024, I talked about all the kinds of verbs. The “be” verbs are helping verbs. Like many words, these verbs can be overused but do not need to be eliminated completely.

There are some reasons why you might modify these verbs. I will try to use real examples from my novel Root Beer and Roadblocks to see if I can improve on anything.

Stronger Verb is Available

Sometimes be verbs help along another verb, but occasionally there are other, tighter options.

What I wrote: The morning was a rush to get David off to school and make it to the oncology clinic on time. 

Another option: She rushed that morning to get David off to school and make it to the oncology clinic on time.  

Now that didn’t involve a different verb, just a different emphasis. The reality is a morning can’t be rushed. It is simply a morning. However as people we can be. So if I were to revise this novel that might be a better way to phrase it. Not bad the way it was but slightly tighter with the revision.

What I wrote: The bigger question was—did she have the courage to confess the truth to Johnny?

Another option: The bigger question remained—did she have the courage to confess the truth to Johnny?  Definitely using a stronger verb here.

Avoiding Passive Voice

My software used to warn me about passive voice and I’m not always the best at recognizing it. Some things are easier for some writers than others. Not all instances of passive voice should be shunned. Sometimes they are appropriate. However, the desire in fiction is for a more active voice. You can do a check on that through Grammarly if you download that to your computer (they have a free version) but I’ve found it not to be entirely accurate. If you question a phrase you can put it into a passive voice checker.

Avoiding “to be” or “was” can help eliminate passive voice but not even that is a perfect rule.

What I wrote: She took the clothes away to be washed, leaving Khloe to explore under David’s watchful eye.  (this is passive voice)

Another option: She left to wash the clothes, leaving Khloe to explore under David’s watchful eye.

Caution: There are many uses of to be that are not passive voice so eliminating them all is not the point. Minimizing passive voice is probably something I should cover in another post, but it really is not something I’m great at. (All the more reason for me to explore it, right?)

When to Avoid Changing a Be verb: 

When it changes the tense of the sentence as in continuous action verses past tense.

What I wrote: Johnny came out to schedule his next appointment, and Katie was at the desk.

Better option: Johnny came out to schedule his next appointment, and Katie was sitting at the desk.  This might have been a better way for me to write that sentence since it was a continuing action. She hadn’t just sat down. To say she sat at the desk could have been misleading.

When you might be substituing another overused verb.

What I probably wrote in a first draft: She felt overwhelmed with the number of people, but David stuck close and kept her up to date as to who was who. Felt is an often overused word and personally I’d prefer the was to the overused verb like felt.

What I wrote: She was overwhelmed with the number of people, but David stuck close and kept her up to date as to who was who. Even better would have been to describe what that experience was like physically and emotionally for her. (The Emotion Thesaurus!)

When it simply reads better with the be verb. As with any of the things an author can consider, readability is always king and if any version of “be” is appropriate and nothing else satisfies, then keep it.

What I wrote: He knelt down to embrace all three kids. Apolo was stuck in the middle.  I honestly cannnot figure out a better way to write that except to perhaps have him be squished which would be a more descriptive verb.

This obviously was bare bones but to be or not to be is a question that authors sometime need to wrestle with and oftentimes it isn’t as high on the list of things to worry about when writing, especially the first draft. The final version of Root Beer and Roadblocks contained:

  • 758 instances of was,
  • 197 instances of were,
  • 162 instances of to be (mostly without being passive),
  • 407 of be,
  • 31 of am,
  • 350 of is, and
  • 323 of would. 

Compare that to other often used words in that novel:

  • 2,982 uses of the
  • 1,735 use of a
  • 165 uses of an
  • 523 uses of as

The be verbs cannot be completely eliminated because as helping verbs they make things click well and most readers don’t really even see those words. When I used to use AutoCrit these were not words they even flagged to be on the watch out for. Still, it’s worth having the discussion of to be or not to be and in most instances I’ll stand in favor of be words.

 

 

Author Confessions: Attributions in Dialogue

Aug26
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: Attributions in Dialogue

When an author is writing a story he will often include dialogue and there are two ways to give information about not only the tone of the conversation, the activiting surrounding it, and the person speaking.

Dialogue Attributions

When referring to who is speaking it is called a dialogue tag. An example might be: “Welcome to my party,” Meghan said.

If it were a question it would be written perhaps something like this: “Are you coming to my party?” Meghan asked.

There are some uses of a tag within dialogue as well. For instance: “The car lights,” she explained, “aren’t bright enough to drive at night.” These should be used sparingly because they slow the reader down.

There is a debate amongst some who say that you should only use said (or perhaps asked if it’s a question) for a speaker tag and nothing else. I personally disagree. The speaker tag can give so much more information when used appropriately. I have a lot of different images I’ve collected over the years on my Writer’s Toolbox board on Pinterest and I invite you to check them outas some pertain to this topic but don’t translate well to posting here.

There are a lot of other words that can be used to describe what is going on in a scene using dialogue tags.

“How dare you?” Harry threatened.  This says a lot more than said would have done, right? You get a different feel for what’s going on between the characters in a scene by the change of one simple word from said to threatened.

“Why won’t you come over?” Sarah pleaded. This has a different tone than simply asked.

There are over 190 different words to use as tags instead of said.

Having given that information, it is not necessary to put a dialogue tag on every instance of diaglogue when characters are conversing. This can be a bit of an art. As long as you can’t lose track of who is talking it isn’t necessary. If someone refers to the other person by name, for instance, as they talk, we know who is and isn’t speaking. Sometimes too many tags can drag the conversation down and we don’t want the reader to become frustrated.

Action Attributions

Another way to give information about a scene and to keep the reader informed is through an action attribution or tag. Sometimes this is good because we don’t necessarily want them to be stagnant as they converse, even if they are on the phone someone can cough, or rustle papers, click a pen, take a sip of coffee.

For example: Jill twirled around the room, and expression of pure bliss on her face. “I love French toast.”

Or: “If you don’t  get this thing out of my face…” The corner of Gary’s lip pulled back in a sneer.

Both of these examples not only tell you who is speaking but some action and adds a depth of emotional color to the scene for the reader to enjoy.

Beats

I was confused when I first heard an author use tags and beats when referring working on edits to a story. I had no clue what she was discussing. It took some time before I began to understand that she was going through and doing the attributions. Whether it was going to be action or dialogue tags she was considering the “beats”, or rhythm or pacing of the story and how best to keep it moving forward during those scenes with speaking. The author doesn’t want to drag down the reader with too much action or description and definitely don’t want to detract from the content of the dialogue when giving attributions.

Caution

I’ve done this more than once where I put an attribution before a dialogue. For instance, this would be wrong.

Percy yelled, “Hey, get out of there!” Why is this wrong? Because he hasn’t yelled yet.

The better way to write it is: “Hey, get out of there!” Percy yelled.

What do you think? Should a writer only use “said” for an attribution in dialogue, or do you agree with me that the variety can add so much more to the telling of the story if the writer can use those skillfully?

 

 

Author Confessions: Repetition and Redundancy

Aug19
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: Repetition and Redundancy 

Hmmm, isn’t the title itself a bit redundant? Why would I use both words to describe an issue most author struggle with from time to time? Let me explain.

Repetition

When a writer is penning that first draft they often use a word several times, whether it is to describe and object or action. It’s easy to do because the brain just had that word at it’s fingers and it was easier to grab that than search for a slightly different word. Another phrase for this is duplicate words or phrases.

Granted, sometimes it can be hard to find alternate words for things like, a door, for instance. You have a door, or a portal, or opening, entrance, exit, hatch, egress… There are more descrptive nouns as well that could be used but if you are writing a historical tome, a portal might come across as a tad too fantastical for the reader. Stairs and steps can pose problems as well. When I typed in either word to an online thesaurus I got nothing but a link to a definition.

An author has to almost have a fully functioning thesaurus in their head but alas, a rough draft will take forever if the author has to police every time she uses a word more than once, whether it be a noun or verb, or even a phrase. There are online software programs, which for a fee, can help you find all those words. Two of the better programs out there are AutoCrit and  Prowriting Aid. They require a subscription to utilize all their features but for a beginning author, their feedback can be valuable. I used AutoCrit for years as a new editor and I learned a lot that helped me (and the authors I worked with) hone our writing skills. I tried Grammarly for a time but often their feedback wasn’t correct so I ditched the free version I had downloaded. Not sure how good they are now. The programs are automated so the author still needs to make wise choices how much to heed with suggestions that might be made regarding a manuscript. You can edit story too much and lose your voice. Alas, I digress.

Winter Watch was written by a friend of mine, Anita Klumpers. It is a riviting romantic suspense. A physical pocketwatch is central to the story. Imagine how that program flagged the word watch! The struggle was real as we tried to find ways to not always use the word watch since the object was mentioned on practially every page! (It’s an awesome book by the way so go get a copy!)

So why two  words? Repetition and Redundancy?

Redundancy

This is a different matter where one says the same thing more than once but perhaps not using the same terminology. This often happens during the first draft because the author is spitting out as much as they can and they might have forgotten they already mentioned a concept or phrase to describe something. Sometimes it is as simple as two words put together that mean similar things. The reality is, readers are smart and don’t often need things to be told to them over again. This can be a challenge in dialogue if a character is telling her story to multiple people over chapters. That is when it is often better for the author to write, “She relayed her experience,” or something like that.

While normally we want dialogue in a story, it could become kind of like a person who tells the same story over and over to people in almost identical words and phrases. It gets exhausting to listen to if you are there for each of those tellings. Same is true in a book, whether it is a similar word from the first or a similar phrase or concept, the author needs to be willing to cut out the redundancy so the story doesn’t get bogged down. I think Charles Schultz in his Peanuts cartoon shows this better than I could.

It’s not that we can’t refer to previous events or things in a story but we need to be careful to not bore the reader with words, phrases or concepts that get recycled without moving the story forward.

Repetition and redundancy are challenges most authors need to struggle with and it can be a challenge within a full-length novel to eliminate any of that completely. Sometimes it is necessary and the author and the editor need to make sure that it serves the story to have it there on the pages. Readers have abandoned books for less and we don’t want to lose our readers.

 

Author Confessions: Those Alluring Adverbs

Aug12
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Author Confessions: Those Alluring Adverbs

In case you haven’t played MadLibs lately, adverbs are words that modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb in a sentence. Using them in a piece of fiction, however, can be a sign of a weak verb. Adverbs can suck the meaning and intention from your words. Not all adverbs end in -ly and as some adjectives end in -ly so that’s not necessarily a way to tell for sure. There are five types of adverbs. Did you know that? I was proabably taught that long ago in some English class but it’s amazing how those little details get lost in the mind filled with life. There are:

  • Adverbs of manner that tell us how something happened. Examples: fast, loudly, quite, carefully, happily.
  • Adverbs of place tell us where. Examples: here, near, outside, there, upstairs.
  • Adverbs of time tell us when. Examples: again, early, never, now soon, tomorrow.
  • Adverbs of frequency tell us how many times. Examples: always, daily, often, rarely, generally, seldom.
  • Adverbs that modify or describe adjectives, verbs, clauses, and other adverbs. Examples: very, not, more, here, always, correctly

Many of these can be essential in a story but a few tend to be overused.

One example:

Using an adverb: “He was really angry.”

Better verb:  “He was furious.” (stronger verb)

More descriptive of the emotion: “His fists clenched and his face grew warm, and his pulse excelerated.”

That was one sentence. Imagine if you will, needing to evaluate every sentence and paragraph in a novel to root out these alluring adverbs that tempt the author to take the lazier route to getting a story written. I’m not saying this is wrong, because a first draft is meant to be edited so having adverbs in there can be useful to get the bare bones of a story on the page, and they can be modified later.

Sometimes the author will decide to keep the adverb. They are not necessarily evil. Or should I rephrase that? Adverbs are not wicked devices devised by satan himself. They are a legitimate part of our English language and they do have a place. Having stated that, it is wise for any author to be aware of these alluring adverbs and work to widen their vocabulary to include stronger verbs that paint the image they want in the the mind of the reader.

Here are a few of the alluring adverbs to be on the watch for. This is not an all inclusive list.

Actually         Totally

Completely     Continually

Constantly     Continuously

Literally     Really

Unfortunately    Ironically

Incredibly   Hopefully

Finally

When an author is doing edits, much like weasel words, the author needs to assess how essential the adverb is in the sentence. Is there a stronger verb that would be more descriptive, or perhaps describing things in more detail?  In dialogue these will be more commonly found and oftentimes remain because that is the way we speak and the writing should reflect that.

If you read last week’s post you are probably surprised I didn’t include SERIOUSLY in this list. There are many adverbs that could be considered. The challenge for the author is to vary their prose to use a wider vocabulary to keep the reader engaged in the story and not annoyed because of weak verbs modified by those alluring adverbs.

Author Confessions: Weasel Words

Aug5
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Author Confessions: Weasel Words

Do you have any weasel words in your speech? I go through phases at times where a certain word pops up more often than others. For instance, a few years ago I seemed to be continually surprised at God’s work in fashioning my relationship with my boyfriend (now husband), Ben. I was often heard to say “Seriously?”

This was so automatic that when he proposed, and I realized what he was doing, that was the first word out of my mouth! Seriously? Followed by “Get on with it then!” A funny memory. Of course, I said yes.

Some people have weasel words or phrases almost as a tick or space holder. “I know,” or “Um,” or “Ah,” This can be annoying to a listener when used too often.

As writers we often have weasel words that can creep into our stories. These words don’t really add anything to the story and often are not necessary or can be substituted with something else.

This is not an all-inclusive list:

Just

That

Suddenly

Very

Every

Some

Most

But

OK/Okay

Different genres might have their own as well. Since I work mostly with romance, I find that heart is often way overused in the books when there might be a variety of other ways to express the emotion going on in the “heart” of the character.

As a writer of Regency romances I found the phrase “a bit” would often creep in and was easily deleted without changing anything of value in the sentence or paragraph.

These are simple little words and every author has a favorite. As an editor, if a word keeps popping up over and over and doesn’t need to be there I might flag it for the author or delete some of them. Trying to police these words can be hard because we often don’t even realize we’re reading them. It’s not that you have to get rid of every instance of these words and sometime they are appropriate, hence this becomes a judgement call and subjective.

OK is an interesting one. Pelican Book Group has a house rule where we use OK instead of okay in our stories. What amazes me is how that stands out so much when going over a text. It can become a bug-a-boo or weasel word as well and sometimes as authors we need to find other ways to express what is going on in the narrative or dialogue.

How does an author decide how to get rid of weasel words?  Three questions can be asked to help make that decision:

  1. Will my sentence make sense without it?
  2. Does it sound natural? Sometimes in dialogue it might be better to keep it.
  3. Do I need it? Does it improve or hurt your writing ?

Always go with what is best for your story.

Weasel words are subtle and sneaky but something every author needs to watch out for so that our stories can be as clean and readable as possible. Not always an easy job to do but one that must be done. In speech or in writing, what words tend to be your most used weasle words?

Author Confessions: Owning My Mistakes (Ouch!)

Jun10
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Author Confession: Owning My Mistakes (Ouch!)

I would rather not write this post. I used to be in a relationship with someone I called “the blame-shifter.” Nothing was ever his fault. Anything that happened, was due to someone else’s nefarious sins. Any failure in our relationship was always my fault because he was perfect. It always bothered me. I don’t ever want to be like that.

This past week I discovered that something slipped by me with my editing work for another author. Ugh. The last time something like that happened was when my father was dying and I thought we were all done with edits on a manuscript and so didn’t think about it only to realize, oops! It still had one more round to go! I blitzed and and so did the copyeditor, of course after copious apologies from me. We got it done because I caught it soon enough. Grief can do amazing things to our memory and while that might be true, the reality is, I should have been more diligent. You’d think I’d learned that lesson.

Last fall I sent two manuscripts to an author whom I’ve been working with for about ten years now. She’s always been on time with returning edits and somehow when I looked at our tracker for our projects I didn’t realize that she still had the documents. Odd. Not her fault though. We had a computer glitch in the fall and documents (as in edits) were not being sent out via the system like they should have. It never dawned on me that they never got to her.

So the other day I was in the tracker getting some stuff input for Christmas novellas when I realized this author had a book scheduled to release in two months. Shouldn’t be an issue if we were finishing up copyedits or final proofs but it had only been through one round of edits. Yikes! How did I miss this? Yes, life is busy and to be honest, there is no good excuse for this. The author never inquired as to where the edits, however,  I am the editor and I’m responsible to manage the project and I failed miserably, aided perhaps by a computer glitch, but still, I screwed up.

I instantly emailed the author with the edits (it really impacted two of her projects coming out close together). Once I got those sent, I called my Editor-in-Chief to confess my flub. She was gracious. Yes, we had computer issues and email issues. She said, “It’s OK, Susan.” I responded. “No, it isn’t. While I appreciate your forgiveness and understanding it is causing a ripple effect for everyone.  I messed up. It shouldn’t have happened.”

The author was gracious as well when we decided that the project due in two months would get pushed off to March 2025 due to no other room in the publishing schedule to get it out this year. The upside of this is with two other manuscripts she has releasing this year it will make her work load a lot lighter and she’ll be able to stretch out her marketing for each book so they get the attention they deserve. Less work? Why would that be a bad thing?

This is a multi-published author who has been down the path to publication many times so for her this wasn’t as devastating as it might have been for a first time author. I had that happen with my first novel when someone messed up and we had to delay the release by a few months. I was crushed. I cried. Life happens, but it still was hard to swallow. Fast forward several years and I had some major edits on a story (long story I’ll probably never tell here, but it was agonizing). This came as I was recovering from  surgery and planning a move and a wedding in a short period of time. Even without all that happening I would never have been able to do what that copyeditor wanted me to do and get it done in time for publication. It is unusual for publishing dates to be pushed off, but unexpected things can crop up on the process. I had another book project with another publisher early on in my career, that kept getting delayed so much that I finally had to cancel my contract with them (they violated the terms of the contract).  We parted ways amicably and while that book (non-fiction) is still awaiting publication, I hope it will release someday when God deems it is ready. Not like I don’t have enough to do right now as it is. My plate is full.

With this experienced author, we could have skipped steps to try to make the deadline, but I’ve learned enough through the years that we need to respect the process and unfortunately, time is an essential part of that. Due to the fact that we are not machines, but human beings, editing needs time and space between work done on a manuscript so the author, and editor, can review it objectively.

So, I’ve now shared with you the truly human factor in publishing. People mess up. We make mistakes.  We miss things. I’ve been on both sides of the issue. I am never offended when an author asks where things are at with a submission or in the editing process because I recognize that it is important to them and sometimes those reminders help keep me on track or take a second look to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I shouldn’t need those reminders, but life does get busy for all of us. I’m not making an excuse or blaming anyone else but myself. Any good author, editor, or publisher will be willing to own their mistakes along the way. Ultimately, God is over all of this and perhaps this delay for this particular author will give her not only more time to do the work that needs to be done and do it well, but bless her writing in untold ways. I don’t know. I’m not blaming God. It’s a truth that even when we mess up in life, and own our mistakes, HE is still capable of bringing good out of it. Owning my mistakes though is an important part of the process, even though it hurts to admit just how human I am.