Wish I Was There But I'm Not. Yet.

Recently I skimmed through the most recent edition of Writer's Digest.  I have an on again, off again relationship with that resource.  Sometimes I'll look through it when I'm at my local Borders and decide to purchase a random copy because it has something in I know I'll want to read in more depth. 

In this issue, a letter to the editor caught my eye.  The writer complained about a well-known writer (without using a  name).  The best-selling author changes POV from paragraph to paragraph in her books, uses adverbs liberally and still sells lots of books.  The letter writer said she found herself being pulled out of the story as she backtracked constantly to figure out who's head she was inside.  The inquiring person wanted to know why some authors get away with these big faux pas.

As authors it is difficult not to notice mistakes in books we read.  A recent bestseller I read had dozens of typos and misspellings.  I wondered where the proof readers were.  I understand a few getting through but this was more than I would expect in a polished manuscript I had prepared to send out.  And like the letter writer, I notice all those adverbs it's okay for successful authors to use.  All those passive verbs.  POV changes abound.  Yet you'll find those books on the displays in the front of book stores.  They'll be on the best seller lists and the author will receive six figure advance money for them. 

If I tried the same thing in my book, no agent would read past the third or fourth adverb.  They'd throw it off the wall at the first head-hopping I did in the middle of a scene.  Let's not even talk about the words, 'was or be,' I'm likely to have sprinkled about the manuscript.  Why can they do that and I can't?

Because I'm not there yet.  I still must follow those rules.  I can't tell my editor to leave it alone. I can't guarantee my faithful readers will pick it up even if I use lots of adverbs.  My publisher doesn't have mega-dollars invested in so they'll promote my work even if it's not my best.  I'm not there and most of aren't.  So I'll keep on following those rules and maybe someday I'll be there.

Have you read any books by famous authors who blatantly ignore the rules we're taught to follow? (No names, please) Do the breaking of the rules distract you when reading?  Which one would you like to break?

Slashing the Weak Words

I’m working on editing the short story I’ve written as a prequel to The Futhark Chronicles. The main characters are secondary but important story movers in the second, Beyond the Gate, and the third book, Beneath the Mountain, in this epic fantasy series.

Since this story will be used only as promotion the only person doing the editing will be me. No professional book fixer will give me advice. All the editors I’ve worked with have helped me identify weak words. Now I’ll have to try and catch them all myself.
I’ve tried to break my habit of using certain pet works. We all have them but successful writers learn to overcome the temptation to use them. How many times can I write, ‘just, even, surely.’ Those are some of my favorite offenders.
How about triple words. Have you written or read one like this. ‘He hoped to try to begin to heal.” There has to a better way to say that one.
How about made up words? ‘Terrifyment, Terrifical.” What exactly do those mean? Get rid of them.

Sometimes it’s so easy to insert wishy-washy verbs instead of rewording and finding a more active verb. I try to get rid of all the ‘made, began, became, put, take’ and a few more that deserve no place in my story.

Along those same lines of weak verbs are the one representing abstract mental processes such as ‘knew, thought, realized, recognized, seemed, appeared.’

Some editors advise you to reword any sentence starting with ‘there.’ And of course cut all words ending with ‘-ly.’ I recently read an article cursing all use of pronouns. I don’t possess the talent to attempt that. Yet.

Every day I write is also a day of learning. Every time I work with a different editor I learn something new. Sometimes one editor contradicts another and perhaps proves a little of the ‘weak word’ identification is affected by personal preference or experience.

What weak words plague you? Have you learned to strike them from your writing? Is there a particular book or workshop that has helped you with word choice?