Meandering on Monday with Janet Lane Walters #amwriting

I'll start today with a bit about the word it, as in it was and it had and all the other little uses of this word. I began to read a book and I won't mention the book or the author but before the end of the first chapter I was totally turned off and couldn't read more. All the its in these pages made me cringe. Yes, It is a real word and there can be a meaningful use of this word. But in this case the use showed a careless writer not paying attention to how much more powrful the sentences would be if they had just been re-worded. With a little bit of editing, this story would have drawn me in and I would have found the story delightful. Anyone who has sat in one of the critique groups I've been part of knows I will call them on this every time. Sometimes a person is so eager to be published they don't look at small details that ruin the effect of their words. When I first started writing, I used the It was or It had construction but an editor pointed this out to me that the sentences would pack more punch with a bit of re-writing. So, though I might enjoy other stories by this author, I doubt I'll buy another book. I'm just sorry her editor never picked up on the, while not passive tone of these sentences but that they could have been stronger and more specific just by removing the It was or It had and turning the sentence from a rhinestone into a diamond.

My second meander is about a book on writing I recently re-bought. I learned much of my craft from Dwight V. Swain's Techniques of a Selling Writer. There was something I wanted to reference here and realized I had loaned the book to a beginning writer and the book was never returned. This has often been the story of my life. I decided to purchase this again and I'm using it as a refresher course and also for the Wednesday's Writer's Tips on this blog.

As to my writing. I'm working hard on getting my workshop for NJRW that will take place in less than two weeks. I'm also working on To Heal Shattered Dreams and will soon finish another draft of the story. Then I'll turn to The Goddesses of Er for dredging another three chapters from the yellow carbon copy I found. I'll also be sketching out the next in the Moon Child series. So now it's back to work