October Novel Prep Challenge

It is Lolly I was running on two hours of sleep...

As to the rest. I will not argue over adverbs that was not the point I was making. My point was if you follow every piece of advice given as though it is law, you will soon find you have lost your own voice. For me putting it down doesn't work. For others it might.

Each writer has their own voice and that voice shouldn't be stifled by other people's rules. That voice is developed by the culture they are raised in, by the books they read, and by the people they speak with. I wouldn't risk ruining the voice those things gave me by forcing a rule into my writing because someone empirically decided that it worked for them so it had to work for everyone else and wrote an article about it.

All I was saying is in your quest to improve make sure your not doing more damage to yourself than you know. I did that. A writing teacher who was a published author once complained about my lack of use of he said/she said. One teacher in high school told me never use He said/she said when you can use that space to describe something or add depth to the scene. I always thought that was the best advice I had ever been given.. This published author came along and said the fact I only used it twice in a thousand word short story was disconcerting to her. So for the rest of the class I included it more to make her happy. I hated it. I still hate it. I can't read the newspaper without rewriting all the he said/she said's in my head. But, I changed because she told me too.

That was nearly ten years ago and you know what... I still struggle with weather or not I should use it here or over there. Am I using it right, am I using it wrong? She screwed me up. She agreed there was nothing wrong with me doing it my way but she wanted me to try it hers. I did. I hate it. and I will never be the writer I was because she is still there saying but its weird not to use it more than you do.

That was what my warning was about. I tried not to be too personal by going with adverbs. I could have just as easily gone with passive voice. I use both liberally and I like it.. "Gasp" I know right... I won't ever get published that way. So be it. One day those things will come back in fashion and my children will publish my work. I am okay with that.