Here i will share my journey of hopefully one day recognising my dream of becoming published writing what i love to read; Romance!
Showing posts with label cutting words. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cutting words. Show all posts

Friday, May 3, 2013

Writing Tip: Cutting extraneous words during editing

I know i will be up to this part of editing soon. (Well probably a month or two away)

Rachel Gardiner recommends that before submitting or publishing your manuscript it could be in your best interest to do another round of edits and cut 10 words per page.

How?

Look for -ly words. Are they necessary?
So too for -ing words

cut out passive voice - 'was', 'were' and 'that'

shorten description

shorten internal monologue or show thoughts and feelings through dialogue or action.

repetitive telling what the reader already knows.

And, carefully considering a big list of overused words:
about, actually, almost, like, appears, approximately, basically, close to, even, eventually, exactly, finally, just, just then, kind of, nearly, practically, really, seems, simply, somehow, somewhat, sort of, suddenly, truly, utterly, were.


I don't know what my overused words are - well, actually i think i use 'hoped' too much!

What are your best editing tips, or overused words?