Tag Archive | redundancy

Author Confessions: Purge, Delete, and Simplify

Jan19
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Author Confessions: Purge, Delete, and Simplify

I was deleting a bunch of emails this morning and it hit me how cluttered life gets. Right now I live in a tiny apartment and there truly isn’t enough space for everything to have it’s own place that is easy to find and manage. I try to file my papers and receipts and keep things in order but the mess often overwhelms me.

Now part of this might just be me and my ADHD brain. But I do understand that when the clutter is cleared up, there is an emotional benefit.

When I moved 7 years ago, I sold, purged, and gave away a lot of things. When we moved this last summer I did the same. My husband joked that he liked my way of moving by selling stuff. All my bookshelves were sold. They were not strong enough to keep being moved and moved and moved without falling apart – so I sold them cheap to others who would benefit and enjoy them. Once we can occupy our home, I can try to figure out what I want for bookshelves. Maybe my husband could do a built in bookcase? He could but he has so many other projects and I wouldn’t trust myself with his saws to make it myself. I’ll probably be back on Facebook marketplace to find what I need.

I digress. As we are moving into this new year, what about things you might want to purge, delete, and simplify?

I’m going to spitball some things:

  • Less screen time
  • Less impulse shopping
  • Less negative thinking
  • Less criticism and judgement
  • Less social media posturing about politics

I know someone who years ago gave up physical books. He went to everything on his kindle. I can’t do that as much as I do love reading on my kindle, there is something about physical books…  Having said that, I might be purging, as against my wishes, boxes of books ended up in a storage hoop that eventually collapsed under heavy, wet snow. I won’t know until spring if the books were damaged by moisture. Cardboard boxes only provide so much protection, but I was assured they would be fine and my requests for them to be wrapped in plastic were forgotten. I could have moved them, but I couldn’t get at them without hurting myself, so I surrended. Our wood stove might have some extra fuel if those books are damaged, and I’ll need to re-evaluate whether I purchase those titles again in hardcover or paperback…or get kindle copies if I think I still might want them.

Getting rid of things, and thoughts, often leaves a vacuum which can easily be filled with something else. I can clean off our kitchen table but it soon becomes a dumping ground. We are unable to NOT think of something. Just thinking about not thinking of something forces you to think about it.

So perhaps instead of less screen time, pick up a book or do a hobby. Or instead of avoiding Amazon, re-evaluate your closet or shop at a thrift store if you want something “newer” in your wardrobe. I have some pieces I’m still wearing and love after many, many years that I found that way. Instead of negative thinking, how about thinking about positive things: practicing gratitude, or memorizing Scripture. Let praise and compliments flavor your speech instead of focusing on criticism. Not that we can’t speak the truth in love, but perhaps focus on positive things more. As for social media? Decide who you really want people to see there, and what they walk away with when they think of you and your posts. Granted, if that’s your job, fine, but otherwise, perhaps shine a light in the darkness instead of contributing to the mess.

I’m preaching to myself here.

As a writer we often try to get rid of redundant phrases or words that are unnecessary. The same is true in life. I’m a writer and will confess to an overabundance of writing implements and notepads. Yes, I do a majority of my writing on my laptop but I do still love pen/pencil and paper for many things. Too often not being able to find paper or pen has given me a need to have them everwhere! I’ve even got my hubby using legal pads to make lists – but he often uses a marker to write things down big on those pads as he outlines the things he doesn’t want to forget!  Even on my laptop there are far more files than need to be there and some are saved on external hard drives because I can’t seem to be bothered to erase them. The rough draft of a novel I wrote over 10 years ago doesn’t really need to be saved, does it?

How about people or relationships? I firmly believe that people are important and we need to make time to develop and foster good relationships, but not all of them are beneficial. Where do you draw the line and stop trying to connect with people that aren’t reciprocating? Or perhaps are using you? That can be difficult to do and I’m not saying be mean and cut people out of your life all together unless they are toxic, then no-contact is great. What I am saying is: be wise about who you spend your time with. Focus on those relationships where you can. When that door closes on their side, walk away knowing God has someone else to connect with that He will reveal in His due time. The waiting can be hard.

It’s not spring yet, or time for spring cleaning, but I know that when I’m done writing this post I’m taking out the garbage and loading up paper waste in my car along with some others stuff that needs to be gone from our space. Once that happens I’ll emotionally be in a better place to tackle the other things on my to do list. None of it is fun, but it is necessary.

How about you? What do you need to purge, delete, or simplify in your life? I’d love to hear your ideas!

 

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.