Since I just finished a month of focusing on passive voice, I thought it a good idea to address other problems I need to learn about in my pursuit of better manuscripts.
I located a file I have on all manner of sins writers commit, but I was more interested in the nuh-uh words. Found ‘em, too.
Directional words like up, in, out, down, over, can be unnecessary if you look close enough at your sentence structure. So can very, still, even, -ly words, rather, pretty, reach, the dreaded ‘almost’, only, just, not…
With my list of passive no-nos – found with the help of Microsoft grammar check – and these other words, I set about hunting them down in Anzac Ascension.
Oy, what a chore! To find these words, I replace the black font with a different colour for each sin. On the bad side, my first four chapters now sparkle like a rainbow. On the good side, it’s easy to see the error of my ways and plunge into reconstruction and re-writing.
Oh, to be able to write a first or second draft with perfect sentence structure and grammar! Hmm… nah. I don’t know too many authors who can do that, and those who can, have spent years honing their craft and practicing, always striving to write better prose.
It’s a tough job to get everything as perfect as you can, and I have notes stuck to the side of my screen with the list of words to avoid. Maybe, through the magic of osmosis, I’ll eventually be able to take the list down; but I doubt it.
Until then, my job is to have the manuscript with all black instead of blues and pinks, and reds, and greens and yellow and…
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