Happy July to All Writers! Hop on the Insecure Writers Support Group train HERE.
How is your writing? Mine has grown less and less frequent over the years. But I AM still writing! I'm excited about my romantic suspense WIP--it's just that my day job has grown in scope and I don't write if I travel on the weekends.
As I write this post, I'm in Nashville, visiting a good friend who moved here recently. We cooked quite a few dishes for his brother's July 4th party, including spicy grits, pimento dip, banana pudding, spiked lemonade, and red velvet brownie stars.
IWSG Question: What is one valuable lesson you've learned since you started writing?
I could fill pages with all I've learned since I started writing ten years ago, but I'll narrow it down to this:
Use punchy action verbs instead of adverbs.
Instead of Joe ran quickly ... Joe dashed.
Instead of She looked frantically through her purse ... She rummaged through her purse.
My debut novel, With Good Behavior, was full of adverbs and bloated writing. I sliced 30,000 words and my publisher will re-release the tighter version soon. I cut the book down to its fighting weight!
Check out this pdf by Deanna Carlyle, 1000 Verbs to Write By.
Instead of Joe ran quickly ... Joe dashed.
Instead of She looked frantically through her purse ... She rummaged through her purse.
My debut novel, With Good Behavior, was full of adverbs and bloated writing. I sliced 30,000 words and my publisher will re-release the tighter version soon. I cut the book down to its fighting weight!
Check out this pdf by Deanna Carlyle, 1000 Verbs to Write By.
Thank you to Alex Cavanaugh and this month's Co-Hosts:
Comments
All the best.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat G at Everything Must Change
Hooray for actionny verbs! I wonder why we all gravitate to soo maaany adverbs when we're newbie writers.