I Play a Writer on the Internet

Adverbs are bad. That’s a common message in writing advice and there’s nothing like actually doing some writing to see the logic behind that message. You can’t eliminate adverbs entirely, they do serve a purpose, but I think of them as hints that maybe this a place where the writing can be strengthened. There are …

This is a kind of cut that I’m finding, and one I’m glad to get rid of. Aimee twisted around, surveying the field for the little boy. She didn’t see him anywhere. “Where’d he go?” The problem here is that the I’m stating the obvious. The action and the dialogue indicate that Aimee can’t see …

Moving on with the paragraph, the next two sentences got combined into one. Gnarled branches looked like broken fingers reaching for the sky. The sight gave Aimee the uneasy feeling that the trees were writhing in pain. First, I got rid of “looked like” because it’s weak, I removed “reaching for the sky” because I …

For my 100th post, I’m going to go over some editing. Woo Hoo! The first sentences of my changes in Post 99 went like this: “It’s so beautiful.” Aimee managed to tear her gaze away from the sight. My first change was to get rid of the word “beautiful”. That reason requires context, I had …