Thursday, March 13, 2014

Joy of sight 2: repeated and unnecessary words

Repeated words.

Unnecessary words.

Cull these when you revise your MS.  It's obvious, but they have a way of sneaking in when you're focused on other things.  So it's worth a blog post as a reminder.

Repeated words:
  • will occur as part of the creative process
  • may just need to be changed to another word
  • may be an indication of too much description
  • may be an indication of inefficient paragraph construction

Unnecessary words:
  • multiple actions (the right one is usually better)
  • multiple adjetives (the right one is usually better)
  • adverbs (often an indication that a better verb can be used instead)
  • redundant information
  • unimportant information

Editing is a skill.  Writers, keep honing your craft!


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