Why yes I do? I raise my hand knowing I'm guilty. I didn't realize how bad I was until editors started chopping my sentences to bits. I overuse words, phrases and padded sentences. Well I'm learning my lesson. Now I just got to put it to use. While reading
On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction says "Clutter is the disease of American writing." I was shocked as I tend to write in useless words. He even edited the page below five times until he was satisfied.
Then while reading
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
by Stephen King he says leave adverbs alone, to quote correctly "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." Well there you have it again. Once I'm done editing my book I know I will have to take out a lot of "EXTRA" and "USELESS" words. But I'm learning and having fun while I do, at least for now anyway. So here are some tips I've learned from these two books.
- When quoting you can't go wrong with a simple "he said, she said"
- Simplify your sentences, get rid of useless words
- The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components
- Is what you trying to say clear to someone the first time through
- Clear thinking becomes clear writing
For me, it's a work in progress. I know what to do and now I have to apply it. So even if it takes editing a sentence five times, that's what I'll do.
I do both- but I'm working on it. I've read William Z's book- it was really good. I just bought King's 'On writing', but probably won't get to it for a while.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes, guilty as charged. I have to work to keep my sentences clean and clear, and then I am afraid they are too simple.
ReplyDeleteI have a list of words that I remove on my rewrites. Like "that" lol.
The Stephen King quote reminds me of this tweet from yesterday http://twitter.com/FakeEditor/status/19757686897
Cheers!
Such great reminders. Thank you! I have some "housecleaning" to attend to. haha
ReplyDeleteMy award post is set for 7am.
ReplyDeleteGirlfriend! You are being nominated for the Versatile Blog Award!
Check it out in the morning, I've been, orthodontist, counseling, hubby gone, kind of busy today.
MusingMom
musingsmom.blogspot.com
I fall into the cluttered sentence category. These are good tips. I will try them on my next post.
ReplyDeleteHow true..sometimes I write as I think and there is way too much clutter. Thanks for this reminder..Helps us stay focused and work on avoiding that. Am loving this blog
ReplyDeleteAysha
I like your points you shared. I'm not a professional writer but I try to clean up my sentences as much as I can. Is there a good 101 writing book somewhere for new bloggers? I'd be most interested. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWilma
Www.my-own-inspiration.blogspot.com
I'm constantly revising my sentences, trying to clean up here and there. Wherever I delete a few words, I seem to add more words elsewhere. Trying to keep shorter sentences as much as I can.
ReplyDeleteWould The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction be a good guide for beginners like me?
I write like I talk and I think that makes my writing more "real" for people to read. I will never publish a book so I'm not worried whether or not it's grammatically correct.
ReplyDeleteI blame my childhood teachers. LOL. They were always making us hit a certain amount of words or pages in order to complete assignments so we were FORCED to use extra words. haha. Oh well. I'm a new follower from Bloggy Moms. Nice to meet you. Link up on my blog hop when you get a moment.
ReplyDeleteJulie @ Bunches of Bargains
http://bunchesofbargains.blogspot.com
Great post! I'm a new follower from BF!
ReplyDeleteDemure Angel I like that book I also like the Author 101 series and My favorites are On writing and On writing well. These books will definitely help with nonfiction.
ReplyDeleteMy writing is filled with incomplete sentences and dangling participles but I keep the faith! Thanks for the tips.
ReplyDeleteHappy Friday!
I'm following via Blog Hop Friday.
Have a great day!
Lisa