Something I was recently called out on was a scattering of adverbs in my writing - in other words, those words ending in '-ly', such as slowly, grimly, painfully...
I admit it's a cop out and a classic case of telling instead of showing, but I didn't realise how much I did it until someone pointed it out to me. Now every instance is like a giant turd staring out of the page at me, like some horrific obscenity - the literary equivalent of a kick in the knackers.
And I've started noticing the damn things in other people's writing too. Even esteemed authors use the occasional quickly or deftly, and each time it's like smashing your car into a brick wall - I crumble to a painful halt and have to start again from the next sentence.
Sometimes all these writing 'rules' are a pain in the arse. I'm off to make a cup of tea, quickly and expertly of course.
Thursday 17 March 2011
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