The author S.A. Joo's Writing & Editing Advice & Tips

A professional Editor www.sirraedits.com and YA Writer, represented by Black Hawk Literary Agency.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Twitter Writetip and EditTip #3

Thanks for visiting my blog to read all the writing and editing tips. I can't believe this is the 3rd edition. I guess I do give a lot of advice on Twitter. Or vent :-P Anyway, enjoy~

Found 23 "finally" & "immediately" in 2 chapters alone. In the same book. Telling and overused "ly" adverbs get me. In a bad way. #writetip
Another common mistake. Staring means to stare. Starring means to star in a performance. Not that hard. It's English. #writetip #dictionary
Does anyone really growl, hiss, spit, bellow, shriek, or roar? SAID would suffice. Dialogue tag fail. #stabby #deleting #writetip
Writers! Run a Word-check on your MS. Try to limit the usage of the words "that" and "just." REPETITION is not good #writetip #pubwrite
Another dialogue tag fail. Agreed, commented, instructed, remarked, explained, lectured, reported, repeated... USE SAID #writetip #telling
Thanks for a disclaimer telling me your book is fictional. For a moment there, I thought I was pulled into a new world. An unbelievable one.
It's not right to promote a book purely out of reciprocation or friendship. Especially if it's crap. It gives indiepub a bad name #StrokeJob
#writetip There is no room for factual inaccuracies even in fiction. It's a fantasy world, not a crazy one. Enough #amediting this morning.
Fragmented sentences are like opening another door without closing the first one. And there are no closure for either. #writetip #pubwrite
IMPACT SENTENCES(1-word or fragmented sentences) Excellent when done right, but too much makes it choppy. Stab. #writetip #pubwrite #writers
I'm still seeing too many "just" "that" "very" "as" in manuscripts. Use word-find function to avoid repetition of any words. #writetip
Avoid head-hopping. If not, keep to a minimum by having one character's thoughts confined in one separate paragraph. #writetip #cheating

Professional Edit isn't luxury. It maybe a necessity and what separates a polished, salable manuscript from a trunked one. #writetip #editor
Don't ever do a flashback within a flashback. That's just crazy. Well, unless you want to drive your readers mad... #writetip #writing

I think as we learn and grow as writers as we write. It's good to try new things but old wisdom never fails. (Re: flashbacks within a flashback.)

14 comments:

  1. I think there were 3 usages of "as" in that closing statement there, Su... *hides so you don't go completely stabby on me* #stillheartchoo

    p.s. I loved this post. Just sayin'.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Why you....oh. Dear Ani, Thanks for visiting my blog and for leaving me such a lovely comment. I would like you to sample a plate of everything good and mouth-watering that could only be found in Hawaii, which I have right here. See you on Twitter~

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Sirra. Looking at your assessment on edited manuscripts; I need to point that hiss growl bellow is a dramatized sentence on someone’s assessment of a person. To growl when speaking; shows someone’s disapproval. To Bellow a sentence means to shout out your words. Using the word “said” would be, what is known as Basic English. Many words in the English language are repetitious without them the sentence would be unreadable. Take the phrase of the immortal bard, to be or not to be that is the question, and run it for a word grammar check. Shakespeare introduced hundreds of new words into the English language. Some provincial words are now Basic English. Shakespeare’s plays are full of so called passive sentences.
    To clarify the point a cockney person would say; “this story is not the same, it left that word out.” as
    “Dis story is’nt der same, it left der word ou.” Read Emily Bronte’s book, and you will see that in it, she spells the words as spoken by her provincial characters. This is to dramatize the book; give it a real human feeling. As an engineer, I have written many technical documents. Engineers would understand the document fully. The average person on reading it would probably say: ‘What in the hell is that all about.’
    Sometime lexical phrases can be used to express one’s self more fully. Did you know that American grammar is in some ways archaic, as opposed to British grammar. Apart from altering the spellings “Labour” to “Labor” and so on, the actual grammar construction differs slightly from British Grammar.
    Words used out of context in a new meaning Buzz = all the go. Sarvo = this afternoon. Gay = sex orientation. I could go on. Have a good day. Best regards Anthony R Davis. @trinuwan Australia

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sir, while 99% of what you stated in your comment may well be fact. However, you've missed my point. Dialogue tag fail as the current publishin world sees it. Thanks for visiting my blog!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Publishing, I meant. Darn the iPhone.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cool blog! I do editing/writing myself, so I appreciate all the time and work that goes into those two professions:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Excellent post, as usual your stabbity is just as great beyond 140 characters.

    I'm still laughing at the #strokejob hashtag.

    ReplyDelete
  8. In James Herbert's "'48", every time a character spoke with an accent, he wrote it out normally and then added, "except that it sounded like [whatever word it was but phonetically]". After about twenty of these, I was ready to throw the book out of the window. I couldn't do it, of course, since it was a hardback and would probably have killed somebody. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. So really just use said? All the time? I'm just asking cause books I read have different dialogue tags...but not an over usage. I wonder if that's a change in writing? I agree though, something like "Can I have that?" questioned Sara is really pointless since the '?' indicates the question.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Ashley~
    Yes, said and some other types of dialogues are okay though adverbs are overused. However, the key is to avoid using too many of them. If the dialogue is strong and efficient, you don't need a dialogue tag to indicate the speakers or what they're feeling. Hope that clears up your confusion.

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's late finding this act. At least, it's a thing to be familiar with that there are such events exist. I agree with your Blog and I will be back to inspect it more in the future so please keep up your act. essay writing service

    ReplyDelete
  12. Blog comments can be the lifeblood of any blogger's webpage. They offer you feedback about the types of posts that readers find useful or interesting, and they encourage your readers to actively participate. A blog with a busy comments section is one that is seen as active and popular, with a good sense of community. seo content

    ReplyDelete
  13. Straight to the point and well written! Why can’t everyone else be like this? buy an essay

    ReplyDelete