I'm Still Hanging Up My Shoes

Life is going to be double busy for me over the next two weeks, and I plan on spending every free moment writing. I'm determined to finish my revisions before my kids get out of school for the summer. This, of course, will drastically reduce my blogging activity. I'll be in and out for a couple of weeks, but I look forward to catching up with all of you when I return on Monday, May 10th, which happens to be my blogiversary. We'll celebrate all week with some fun prizes. I hope to see you then. On another note, I'd like to thank Susan Fields for the Sunshine Award and Laura Best for the Beautiful Blogger Award. Thanks Girls! I'm flattered. Have a great couple of weeks, and I'll see you soon.

I'm Hanging Up My Shoes!

It's the third week of the month, and that means I'll be unplugging. Have a great one, and I'll see you next Monday.

From Point A to Point B

Yes, we need to get there, but do our readers need to know every detail in between? Of course not. They'd be bored to tears after page one and toss our book to the side. Which is exactly what I felt like doing to the life-like baby my daughter brought home for her Parent and Child Development class last night. Yikes! The thing never quits crying. Isn't that enough for you to hear? Don't you know what a miserable night I had from that? Do you really need me to tell you that he (his name is Ryan) wanted to be fed every hour and a half, changed every hour, burped every two, snuggled constantly? You're probably already sick of hearing about it, and you would have gotten the point after my first sentence, right? A typical characteristic of first drafts is the inclusion of mundane details that really don't matter. They are usually inserted to get our characters from one point to the next, but they aren't necessary. Our readers are smart and can make the connection themselves. This is no joke, and feel free to laugh, but I had a scene in my first draft where I described every detail of my MC getting ready for school. She showered, she dried her hair, she got dressed, and so on. Who cares? No one, that's who. Some of you may decide to call the writing police on me now. I've heard they do exist. But this is an instance when "telling" is appropriate and even preferred. A simple summary sentence would suffice. "After my usual morning routine, I headed down to breakfast." Really bad example, but I figure the writing police are already after me, so what the heck. Besides, that baby stole all my creativity in the middle of the night. My point is, as authors we need to determine when we should "tell" instead of "show." Uh-oh! I hear the sirens now. Do you have any other examples of appropriate telling? If so, please share. I'm leaving town for a baseball tournament today, and yes, the baby is coming with us. It could be interesting. I may or may not make it around to all of your blogs, but I'll catch up with you Sunday. Have a great weekend.

These Shoes Are Flat

There's nothing wrong with them. In fact, they're pretty darn cute if you ask me, but we aren't talking shoes here. We're talking writing. And let's face it. There's nothing cute about flat writing. In my opinion, this is one of the easiest traps to fall into. A good sign of flat writing is the "to be" verbs: was, are, were, is, etc. Don't use them unless you have to, which will happen occasionally. Example: Inside was the garnet ring. Flat. The ring is doing nothing. The garnet ring sparkled under the fluorescent lights. Still not great, but better, don't you think? The ring now has some sparkly significance. My second challenge for you this week (not that you can do it all in a week) is to try to rewrite every sentence that you've used a "to be" verb. Your words will start to jump off the page. Geez, no wonder these rewrites are taking me so long. How do you feel about "to be" verbs? Do you have a love/hate relationship with them like I do?

Do these boots really need the laces and all those buckles?

Wouldn't one or the other suffice? In fact, neither are necessary. I'm pretty sure the boots would stay on your feet without them. It kind of reminds me of adverbs, exclamation points, and non-said dialogue tags. Take this sentence, for example: "I hate you!" he shouted loudly. I mean, really, come on. Are the exclamation point, shouted, and loudly all needed to get the point across? Furthermore, are any of them necessary? I think not. "I hate you," he said through gritted teeth and stormed away. Not great examples, but I think you get the point. Which sentence conveys a more powerful sense of anger? I go with the second. I've heard so many writers complain about the rules of not using adverbs, exclamation points, and non-said dialogue tags. And, not to put anyone down, because I find it as frustrating as the next guy, but there is a reason these things are frowned upon. They are TELLING. It's lazy writing. Don't get me wrong--there are times when these things may be necessary, but in my opinion, they are few and far between. Use them sparingly. I can't tell you how many times I had to restructure sentences during my rewrites to avoid these things. It's a lot of work, but it's worth it. For every adverb, exclamation point, or non-said dialogue tag in your writing, I challenge you to rewrite them without it. I think you'll find that you've created much stronger sentences. So, what do you say? Are you up for the challenge. I know I am.