I make a list of all the words that start annoying me during my edits and go through to remove/spice things up in the 4th draft, in addition to a list of passive/clunky words/phrases I always keep an eye on.
Here's that list for EVERCHANGING DILEMMA.
- deadpan
- know
- assured
- tease
- even
- ever
- grumble
- growl
- cackle
- gulp
- watch checking
- blood
- surely
- puke
Make of it what you will...
Is this a qualitative list or are you using a tool?
ReplyDeleteJust based on writer 6th sense.
DeleteBesides my usual "Department of Redundancy and Repetitive Repetition Department" tic, I also try to watch for:
ReplyDeleteThing
Made my way
Most "-ize" formations
Passive voice- kill it wherever it grows
There are others, but I am not writing just now, so the hated words list has gone a-glimmering
For sentences that "clank" I used to depend on reading the words out loud, usually to the infinitely patient Mrs. Treydog. And that was great, when the "novels" were being presented in serial form, in 1500-3000 word installments. But now, not so much. Now I just hand her the (2nd or 3rd draft) print-out and let her tell me when something doesn't work.
Because, probably, suddenly, no doubt, now...
DeleteGoing to. HATE it the most. Complete weak-sauce bullshit.
Of course it all changes novel to novel, depending on my mood, and every novel adds a few more to the list...can't remember what novel it was but I became hardcore obsessed with 'that' at one point. I still get a little eye twitch every time I'm reading and see a 'that that' thrown out in some other author's work. 'Had had' isn't much better.
Also I fully realize I do about a hundred things that likely piss off other writers/readers. Not giving much a shit about sentence and paragraph fragmentation probably at the top of the list.
DeleteAgreed on the sentence fragment issue in particular. As another writer pointed out to me long ago- people talk the way they talk.
ReplyDeleteAnd they think in "shorthand". So- fragmentary, disjointed, contradictory. i.e.- human.
I usually only get annoyed by complete lack of editing/ proofreading, constant misuse of words, easily checked errors of fact, cardboard characters.... So you are safe from my righteous Professional Order of English Majors wrath.