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Editing one's own writing can be a journey of self-discovery, especially when one edits a fantasy series of over two million words. In that much writing, one is bound to find evidence of one's writing and thinking foibles. I found two bits in an earlier round of editing, and now I have found another. My character never does things. Instead, he starts to do things.
I started distributing money . . .
No, no, Jack, distribute the money. Don't start to do it.
Now, I am a Southron, and fixin' to get ready to do something is not unusual for me. And since my character is not a Southron, I can't have him fixin' to get ready. Instead, he starts to do things. But about a million-and-a-half words in, I decided maybe he ought to do things rather than starting to do things. Thus I am editing out many of these starts or false starts and simplifying down to have my character do what he's supposed to do.
In the current volume I am editing, which has a bit over 110,000 words, I have some version of the word "start" 219 times. I bet I don't need more than ten of them. The rest are all fixin' to get ready. And I'm fixin' to get ready to purge them.
The others started bringing their contributions in and setting them on the table.
Or maybe the others brought their contributions in and set them on the table. That's one more writing habit to be paranoid about for me. No more fixin' to get ready or its non-Southron equivalents.
How about you? Have any foibles to add to my writing paranoia list? Notice any of your own bad habits? Have other tales of writing discovery or insights into the human condition?
Discussion (82)
CONTRIBUTOR
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I mean, sometimes I think I have a tendency to dilute the impact of my sentences by adding superfluous subjective qualifiers like "I mean", "I think", or " I have a tendency to".
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I do it to weasel in case it turns out to be wrong.
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Well done, I must say.
CONTRIBUTOR
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Weaseling out of things is what separates man from the animals. Except the weasel. Despite that noble goal, in most sentences "I think" can be assumed.
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So too.
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