Tuesday's Writer's Tip - Trimming out the Unnecessary, #MFRWAuthor #BWLPublishing #Zumaya #Writing

When you've finished your story, there are things you should do to make it a good read for an editor or agent. I'm not saying perfect but I've learned over the years that's nearly impossible.

1. Look for those repeated words. I remember once reading a contest entry where the writer was entranced by delicious. On the first few pages, I'm sure she used that word at least ten times. He was delicious. The food was delicious. The aromas were delicious. And on and on. I find that when I'm writing a rough draft I don't pay attention to the words. I just want to get the story down. Then I look at it and groan. I've honed in on one word that comes close to the meaning but not exactly. I have to go through and look at all those words and try to find the right word.

Another word is said. This is used as a dialogue tag. Some say the word is invisible. Most of the time said might be glossed over by a reader. But having a dialogue between two people and using he said, she said back and forth said becomes very visible. One way to avoid this is to show the character in action and showing the reader who is speaking. "Go away," she glared. has more punch that "Go away," she said. So look at the times you use said in a dialogue exchange and see if you can find another way to indicate the speaker.

Now we come to it was. This is the most used phrase in writing. We've all heard "It was a dark and stormy night." I find this phrase cropping up in my stories, particularly in the rough drafts and sometimes other drafts. A good friend who went on to write many books showed me her first version of a story. After I'd read two chapters, I sent it back and told her to get rid of as many it wases as she could and send it back.

So this is the first step in trimming your manuscript before sending it off.