As promised, I have made progress this week! (*trumpets and choirs of angels*) Woooo hoooo!Legacy of the Empress and I have been on a break and seeing other people, but on Monday we reunited. It was beautiful. And kind of brutal. We needed to change some things. A lot of things.
Thanks to my fabulous crit-er (Abby!), I realized that I have
a) a ton of words/imagery that I just love and can't seem to use enough, and
b) a lot of passive language that needs to get off it's bum and become active.
So, I put on my rubber gloves and dug in.
I managed to hack and slash all of the useless "thinking" tags off my inner monologue. After all, do you really need to say "she thought" after you've just put something in italics? I think we all get what I did there. Duh.
I went from using the word "clutching" 500 times to only using it 2-3 times in the novel (yay!), and am slowly phasing out "she realized."
I stopped using "hands/fingers" imagery for everything scary and am mixing it up.
"She saw" is now being removed. My main character has come to grips with the fact that she doesn't have to see or realize things for them to just happen around her. It's much more exciting that way.
All in all, there was much work done, and I feel good. It's always a tiny bit depressing when you realize that there are a ton of little things that could be stronger in your manuscript, but I know that I'm polishing it up into something wonderful.
When I'm done with it, it's going to be shinier than a new penny :).
Thanks for the support and accountability! You guys rock!
How are your weeks going so far? Any progress to report?
11 comments:
Yea for progress! Sounds like you're doing awesome. Let me know if you need me to read anything. :)
And I said this already, but I LOVE the new look of your blog!
Ooh, yay! I'm still fixing some things, but I was trying something new ;).
Thanks for all the help, Abby!
Hell yeah!
LOL sorry for the curse but you're doing amazing! I know I have 700 some "was" words, but out of 70K...it could be worse--much worse! So I feel the pain with your "clutching"
I'm super proud of you and the awesome progress your making! I know I gotta list of things to fix and find/replace is on the top, but it also helps when I highlight them so when I read through you notice other things.
Ahh...microsoft word how I love you!
Great update! Keep us posted--or at least even through email! =D
Haha, yes, Ctrl + F is my favorite computer function!
You guys are so sweet--thanks for all the support and love, Sara!
I have to say, having people rooting for you makes it easier to do the ugly, ugly revising.
Best of luck to you on all of your projects, too! 700 "was" words--not too shabby! ;)
Wow, I'm really impressed by the overuse of certain words you have cut. That makes me laugh you used "clutching" 500 times.
Now I'm curious to see which words I overuse.
Great job Rebecca - I am bad about certain "crutch" words too. And the thinking tags...hmm...time for some more editing!
Okay, maybe it wasn't exactly 500 ;). But it seemed that way!
Thanks, Annie and Christine! Sorry if I caused more editing... doesn't it seem like there is always just one more thing to look out for?
LOVE the new look. Where/how did you get it?
Great job on editing. It's amazing how better each draft of our books can be.
http://btemplates.com/.
I love the internet :).
Funny, passive voice is my big downfall...that and overusing prepositional phrases.
Love the "about" tag. I am horrified with queries, so I can relate.
Great blog.
Thanks, Diane! We'll all get there. At least we're not alone ;).
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