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Hello, everyone! Welcome to this edition of the For Authors newsletter. 
Quote: Writing is not like painting where you add.
It is not what you put on the canvas that the reader sees.
Writing is more like a sculpture where you remove,
you eliminate in order to make the work visible.
Even those pages you remove somehow remain.
~ Elie Wiesel |
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Needless Words
Definitions [cited from Dictionary.com]
redundant - [adj.] - rĭ-dŭn'dənt
1. Exceeding what is necessary or natural; superfluous.
2. Needlessly wordy or repetitive in expression
repetitious - [adj.] - rěp'ĭ-tĭsh'əs
1. Filled with repetition, especially needless or tedious repetition
dialogue tag - [noun]
1. The statements that identify a speaker within written dialogue. Ex: "he said," "she whispers," "they screamed."
[Dialogue tag cited from http://moondance.org/2001/summer01/risingstars/literary.html]
Counting words should not be the first thing you think about while writing a draft. But after the exciting moment arrives when your piece is finished and edited, you might find you are over the word limit. There's no way I can cut any more words, you think.
But guess what? I bet there is. 
Here are some examples:
Fritz kept thinking about a couple of days ago when he had thought about his mother, who was sick in the hospital with pneumonia. She was doing much better now, but those few days had really worried him.
[38 words]
Fritz thought back a few days when he worried over his mother in the hospital. Pneumonia was hard on the elderly, but she was much better now.
[27 words]
 That's a whopping eleven word difference in only one short paragraph! And I just bet some of you out there could cut this back even more, eh? 
Okay, here's another example:
I thought that he was six-years old, but then found out later that he was really eight-years old.
[18 words]
Though I'd thought he was six-years old, I discovered later he was eight.
[13 words]
That's five words cut in just one sentence!
One more example:
There are three more laps to go before we will find out who the winner is.
[16 words]
Three more laps and we'll know who won.
[8 words]
That's half the words!
And whether you are required a word count or not, weeding out those unnecessary words tighten up your style and makes reading simpler for the reader.
Another common boo-boo many of us make without realizing, is writing redundant words or phrases. It's actually quite easy to do. Allow me to throw a few at you and see if you can pick up on them right away or not:
 cold snow
liquidy water
advance notice
completely full
tall in height
...and so on. We already know snow is cold, water is liquidy, a notice is in advance; we don't need to know full is complete and tall is in height, since the words full and tall cover that already.
If we are serious about writing well, we edit our work. I like to read my finished product aloud the first time through. I catch many unnecessary words... repetitive ones being a popular find. Words like that, even, just, very, among others, can many times be eliminated. If you feel a word needs to be emphasized, instead of writing She had a very big pimple on her chin., you could emphasize it in the following way, while eliminating words: The pimple on her chin was huge.
Word tags are yet another way to get rid of unnecessary words. While we as authors want to make sure the reader knows who is saying what, too much of I said, She said, He said can get annoying. Look at the following before and after examples below:
"Go to your room, Lacy," Mom said.
"But why?" I asked.
"Because I said so," Mom said.
"That's not fair," I said.
"Life's not fair," said Mom.
[27 words]
"Go to your room, Lacy," Mom told me.
"But why?"
"Because I said so."
"Mom, that's not fair!"
"Neither is life."
[21 words]
 See what I mean?
There are several ways to elimate needless words. Watching for repetitious words, redundancies, and too many dialogue tags are a good place to start. Read aloud. Edit. Edit. Edit. Geesh, this writing business is a lot of work!
A few interesting books to consider checking out:
 The Little Red Writing Book by Brandon Royal
The Writer's Book of Wisdom: 101 Rules for Mastering Your Craft by Steven Taylor Goldsberry
The Writer's Little Helper by James V. Smith, Jr.
Here are a few links that include more interesting information:
 The Use and Abuse of Dialogue Tags
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/said.shtml
 Literary Terms
http://moondance.org/2001/summer01/risingstars/literary.html
 Redundancies, Pleonams, Tautologies
http://www.fun-with-words.com/redundancies.html
Happy May and...
Keep on Writing!
Cubby ") |
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Feedback
cnoto
Hi Cubby, My favorite online dictionary is the Bartleby.com site, http://www.bartleby.com/61/ . I like this one because I can search on whole word, etymology, definition or comments. The only thing I don't like is the popups but that goes for a lot of sites.
Enjoyed the article!
~ Thank you. And thanks for sharing about the Bartelby site. You are right about the popups. 
jenny14
I love words. I bring a dictionary with me, and my friends think that I'm crazy that I look up so many words. But I just like to look up words and their meanings. :)
~ It's weird, isn't it? I mean... I never would've dreamed I'd love dictionaries, lol! But there are so many cool ones out there. Huh. Never would've thought.
tailennion
dictionary.reference.com It has dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, and more!
~ Thank you!
pockets
the information is good. and well thought of.. Since i am a new person here. How about but I am sure its all ready been done.. How about for new people only.. How, where. etc. etc. I am leaning much. but at times it's over powering.. just a thought
~ Aha! Yes, we have a Noticing Newbies Newsletter, which I happen to be one of four editors of. You should automatically receive it in your email by Thursday mornings.
twyls
My favorite books about words are actually fiction! Sheila Finch writes a series of books about Xenolinguists, or Lingsters, who travel the galaxy deciphering alien languages. The books (The Guild of Xenolinguists being the newest) are so emotional and layered, and not just about language, though that is the ever present theme. I encourage anyone to check out Reading the Bones or the Guild of Xenolinguists.
~ I have ordered Guild of Xenolinguists. Thanks for the recommendations!
Zeke 
I share your facination with words. I routinely use a book called the Flip Dictionary as I write. It is published by Kipter and offers a wide variety of words with the same or similar meaning as others.
Zeke
~ You know, I have that Flip Dictionary and I...  ... have never used it. I think now I will though. I sort of forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me. I heard it was good.
spazmom 
This was great. I agree on the whole dictionary thing. I used to think it was strange to want to read the dictionary. Now, whenever we play scrabble, we're always distracted by the words and what they mean...it's great stuff!
~ I love Scrabble! Haven't played it for a long time though. Thank you for your great response!
heartofahawk
Cubby,
Another great issue - love helpful links! I have a doc I call "Toolbox" I keep them all in to refer to when I'm stuck.
Thanks!
Heart of a Hawk
~ Glad you enjoyed it. And you are welcome!
Kate - Writing & Reading 
Thank you for featuring my poem in this philomathic issue. Thank you for offering along with the dialogue, so many creative resources. "Forgotten English" is my desktop calendar page-a-day dictionary for 2008. Today's (4-4-8) word happens to be philomathic and the short article features Alfred Mosher Butts, the creator of the game that became 'Scrabble.'  Keep Writing! Kate
~ Thank you, Kate. Hey, I want one of those calendars!!! I'll look into it.
Dorianne
The list of resources that you have included are some wonderful books that any writer should have. If they cannot afford to buy these go to a second hand store, or ask, hint or beg to get some of these for their birthday. Thank you for sharing these lists!
~ Great suggestion!!!
fleckgirl
Cubby~
I too am a word fanatic and I receive the "A Word A Day" by Anu Garg daily email & I LOVE it! Thanks for sharing all those resources!
Fleck
~ My pleasure!
 Thank you, everyone, for all the wonderful feedback you send in!
As always...
Have a wonderful week!
AND KEEP ON WRITING!!!
Cubby ") |
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For Authors: April 30, 2008 Issue [#2361]
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