RIDING THE WRITERS' WAVE

April Sunday ,

Judy Buxton comments:



Although I could benefit from this advice myself, I often write in a crowded Starbucks where I’m lucky to find table. Right now, any attempt to hear myself would be drowned out by blaring Reggae. As I dress unusually, a soccer jersey with complimentary headband, my sanity would be further challenged should I add talking to myself.

A Style Nazi’s favorite pastime is reducing words from text. I edit in this manner. It is a game I play with rewards/reinforcement available every paragraph. I apply as many word reducing techniques as possible and compare the word counts. By focusing on writing at its atomic units, I find opportunities for enhancements on the larger scales. I notice themes hidden in sentences, unaccounted plot elements and, of course, voicing inconsistencies.

Be careful: Word reducing is often not the best writing. I provided a line by line for one of Lynn McKenzie ’s novellas. She overused “, and” so I offered taking the next verb and converted the independent clause to a participle phrase:I think you call these verb sandwiches. In the next piece of hers I reviewed, she overused this technique to distraction. In the line by line, I converted half of them back to independent clauses or separate sentences. Overuse annoys just as much, if not more than, a little wordiness.

When I find time to read my work aloud, my critical “pass level” is satisfaction. When editing in my Style Nazi persona, I fall out of love with my own words and acquire a “fix it” attitude. All that said, my edit passes are time consuming. Far more time consuming than others, I imagine.

Let’s face it, there is no substitute for additional sets of eyes. Even after four edit passes of my novel, friends pointed out obvious errors and omissions.

Hope this helps a little,

Dave.