I recorded this Writing Wednesday post yesterday, and my husband was like, “You do know it’s Thursday, right?” And I was like, “Man, that’s what Writing Wednesday is all about!”
So here’s my Friday post for Writing Wednesday! Happy weekend!
June 12, 2009...7:40 pm
writing wednesday: friday edition!
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9 Comments
June 12, 2009 at 10:45 pm
The “aha” moment!! Down with adverbs!!! And why oh why didn’t my English teachers ever point out this dynamic exercise?!? Thank you!
June 13, 2009 at 2:00 am
But suppose you’re going nut-gathering. Your buddy wants to know where and when. Don’t you need to use an adverb to tell him? Indubitably.
June 13, 2009 at 4:05 am
Good point! Totally different set of rules for squirrels!
And here’s the Schoolhouse Rock that Julie’s referring to:
June 14, 2009 at 7:55 pm
I am a new (huge!) fan of your work and I love the writing Wed (or whatever day it ends up being!!) video posts. Please keep these going :-}
My question: I would be interested in hearing how you go through your editing process once you have completed a first draft. I am in that mode now with my first book and finding the editing a bit overwhelming. Any tips or hints on how to make it more managable?
Looking forward to your next book-
Thanks!!!!
June 15, 2009 at 11:25 am
Thank you for these energetic and entertaining words of advice. They will no doubt teleport me to write and writie and write more. (They also handily dispense with that split infinitive nonsense.)
Looking forward to more, any day of the week!
June 15, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Great post! I think avoiding adverbs, in addition to allowing one to compress the text, also forces the writer to penetrate more deeply into the scene. It lets (makes) you think further about what the emotions and motivations are in the scene and how even the movement can convey them.
June 15, 2009 at 4:43 pm
My journalism professor from college would like this post:) Thanks for the reminder.
I came up with one.
Can I share it with you?
Thanks.
“She was dragged then thrown across the room after her teleport machine short circuited moments after her husband tried to fix it but totally screwed it up instead.”
June 17, 2009 at 2:58 pm
I love, love, LOVE this post. (How’s that for NOT conserving words?!?!) I remember SJS teachers encouraging us to use active verbs, but I must have been passing notes or spacing out the day they covered this great point (or did they?). It’s a wonder I breezed through as an English major and was hired as a writer/editor! And your post about conserving words and syllables…WOW! I need that lesson like Houston needs rain!
July 12, 2009 at 12:25 pm
It is like being in a workshop all over again (and this is a good thing).
~~J