World of Words
In this world we fight between good and evil. In this universe we have light and dark. In writing we relish the world of words.
Have you ever tried de-cluttering your writing world? I mean, taking words out of a piece of work to make it a tighter paragraph? I’m often called a drama queen and don’t worry, I don’t get offended because I know it means that I drive home a point. Whether in words verbally or written words, I drive a stake in the heart of the reader so they get the emotional gut wrenching point I’m trying to make.
I’m often telling writers to ‘tighten their work’ but by that I mean take out all the unnecessary words that I, and other writers call, fillers. I remember reading a friends work, and I told her, you have too many ‘ands’ in a single paragraph. She removed them, then showed her ‘editor’ the work and the editor told her the ‘ands’ worked.
To ME, the filler words bogged the story down, had me skipping through it like stones on water where I basically skimmed the story never really finding interest. She eventually went on to get the story published. I’ve never read the finished work, and I hope she is doing well in selling the book.
This is where I found myself less and less interested in writing. I was being asked my honest opinion, but no one really wanted it and didn’t like what I had to say. So why ask an opinion to begin with? Sure that extra set of eyes gives light to what you need to fix and work on, but if you’re going to shrug it off and think the person is wrong, then don’t ask. Find someone more trusting and stroking then I because I’m not going to stroke your ego, I’m going to be truthful and honest.
People read my work and are truthful and honest, sometimes even harsh but a lot of the times they were doing the butterfly stroke (easy) when I needed them to do a harder backstroke.
This is a world of words out here. I/we write. Let’s keep in mind that extra baggage in your writing is no different than a clutter-filled closet! It and your writing needs to be cleaned up and de-cluttered. This week’s posts was all about cleansing your spirit, cleaning up your environment and now de-cluttering your work.
Here are some tips in freeing your work so the sun can shine through the filtered words.
1. Take out a lot of the adverbs. I’m sure there is a more solid word for all those –ly words and such. If you absolutely need the word, then keep it, it might mean that it is a needed word.
2. AND makes a sentence run on and on. Use the comma, periods and semi-colons. They are there for a reason. If the word ‘and’ is a necessity, then keep the word, but don’t make run on sentences what your work is all about.
3. BUT is another overused word. I find myself using it a bit too much and am working on eliminating it from many sentences. Again, see words that are over used and eliminate them.
4. Use a thesaurus regularly! This is a must have in your writing arsenal. Most of the time an overused word can be repeated with a similar word found in the thesaurus. There is no need to repeat the same exact word over and over as long as you have a thesaurus.
5. De-clutter your writing. I can’t say it enough that cleaning up your work, tightening the paragraphs, cleaning up your workspace, cleansing your spirit all go hand in hand in the World of Words, remember that.
