Photo by Tim De Pauw on Unsplas
Today, I’m going to talk about how to get rid of tired words in your writing. You’ll see plenty of tired words in your rough draft, but by the time you send the final draft to a publisher for consideration, those worn out words need to be eliminated.
Whether you’re a beginning or an experienced writer, it can be easy to fall into the trap of overusing certain words.
Have you heard there are two kinds of writers – an outliner and a pantser? One outlines their story from every detail in every scene to a basic three-point outline, and the other simply follows their characters around and writes down the things they do.
I’m a pantser. When I start writing a book, I have a general idea of where it should go, but I never really know. I leave it up to my characters.
I am a Compassion blogger.
We are experiencing hardships, yes. Some of them dire. Some of them heartbreaking. But for those of us in the western world, we have resources. Your resource might be county or state help, and yes it’s confusing and frustrating, but what if it wasn’t available? What if there was no federal government sending stimulus checks?
Let’s visit third world countries where poverty is a matter of living on $50 a month – or less.
In order for my readers to identify with the characters I create, I must be authentic with every word I write. It’s not easy. It means I have to dig for all those feelings I try so hard to hide from the world in order to appear put together. If you really knew what a mess I was, why would you want to read what I write? It’s like walking around naked.
How do I impart my own feelings of vulnerability to my characters?
Part 2 of Making Every Word Count
The English language is confusing – there is no other way to put it. We have words that are spelled alike but are pronounced differently and have different meanings. How do you know when to use which word? You just kind of have to know, is the technical answer.
Someone – I don’t know who – has put words into classes. I think this is supposed to make it easier to understand.
Part 1 – The Words Themselves
When is the last time you thought about words? We speak them all day long. If we’re not speaking them, we’re thinking about them. We use them to express every emotion, every thought, but are we conscious of individual words? Words can spill out of our mouths if we are excited. Or they can come out all jumbled up if we think too much about what we want to say.
I have to admit I’m a sloppy writer. I don’t have set hours in my office with seat in chair. Oh, there’s lots of reasons why that is, but I don’t want to bore you … oh heck, why not? Here’s my list :
In a nutshell, this means ‘making every word count.’ Publishers have word count guidelines. Their guideline for a novel could be 60,000-80,000 words. Think of that number as your word budget. You have 60,000 words to use exactly as you please, but only 60,000 words. Use them wisely.
When I was in college, I had a writing assignment: Write a story, including all elements of a story (beginning, middle, end) using 100 words.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. Phil. 4:8
Our words have power. They can encourage someone, they can rip a person to pieces; they can speak eterna, kife to someone or condemnation. We need to choose our words carefully.
I’d heard about the Dustbowl, and vaguely knew it referred to places … maybe in the Midwest … where the soil turned to dust and the crops died. Never really gave it a second thought. Until now.
This book brought me in, no, it dragged me into the poor wind-beaten homes of farmers who’d lost everything because of dust. It wasn’t a matter of just drought, although it wasn’t raining either. Even if you had all the water in the world,
