A to Z: Adverb Elimiation

2017 THEME: Editing Fiction (Because that's what I'm in the middle of doing.)

What is the Blogging from A to Z challenge and where can I find more participants? Right here.

We'll launch into April with one of the big "Rules" that people like to throw around.

Kill all the Adverbs!


What's with all the hate? Well, in many cases, the overuse of adverbs means lazy writing. It's the difference between:
John walked slowly.
John dragged his feet along the sidewalk with the enthusiasm of a drowsy tortoise.
One tells you that he walked slowly. The other shows you.

My general rule is if there's a stronger way to portray what the adverb is saying then it should be eliminated and the sentence rewritten.

When should the adverb remain?
- When avoiding the adverb makes the sentence awkward or disrupts the rhythm/flow.
- When it feels unnatural to avoid them.
- You know what, sometimes John is really just walking slowly and the word count is tight, and dammit, that's what I mean to say.

What are your thoughts on adverbs?

A to Z 2017 Theme reveal

The day has come for the A to Z April Blogging Challenge Theme Reveal. I'm sure you've all been waiting anxiously. Or you're panicking at the realization that April is fast approaching and you have a month's worth of posts to write. Relax. We have time. It's all good.

I've done short story starts for the past couple years and really enjoyed them. I love the interaction with you guys and seeing what word suggestions you'll leave each day. However, it takes a good deal of time to write each start each day along with visiting and commenting on participating blogs. This year, I've rather booked my writerly self with other projects and obligations so I'm limited on time. Which means, I need a new theme.

So I give you...Editing. Because guess what one of those things is that my writerly self is busy doing? Yes, editing. Currently: The Last God - along with likely another round on Trust and possibly on the additions to A Broken Race.

As I seem to have editing on the mind, it makes for a fairly easy topic to discuss for a month. I look forward to your comments, thoughts and suggestions.

A to Z is changing things up a bit this year, with no linky list, so if you will be participating, be sure to link to either the A to Z posts or facebook page each day to advertise your post.

Blogging A to Z 2017

April is coming up quick. I've been busy with editing and a bunch of author events in the next couple months. I've had such a good time doing short stories with you for the past couple years and had planned to do that again. Except...it occurred to me this morning that I'm going to be super busy with those two things I mentioned.

The short story route takes a lot of time beyond all the visiting and commenting on other blogs. So I'm changing things up this year. What will that be? Tune in on the 20th for the annual theme reveal.

Would you like to join the A to Z fun? Get all the details here.

While we wait for that, stop over to check out the latest Author's Answer. This month we're voicing our opinions on popular advise for authors. This week's question: Should authors write every day?

IWSG March

After wrapping up the first draft of The Last God, I've been busy editing...and then edits came in on Trust. So yes, lots of editing going on right now. 

Now to take a quick break, because it's the first Wednesday of the month...which means it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post.

This month's question is: Have you ever pulled out a really old story and reworked it? Did it work out?

Yes! Trust began as a short story when I was in middle school. It graduated to a novella in high school. Then it got buried in a folder on a shelf for years while I got married, worked, and did the normal life thing.

The normal life thing didn't work out. I went back to writing, pulling out this story I still really liked, and turning it into a horrible novel. That horrible novel got shoved aside while I got divorced, married again, had kids, and wrote better novels until I finally had the hang of things.

On about draft fifty-six I was happy with the entire transformation. The project spent two years in queryland before finding a home with a small press, while I wrote two more books in the series.

Thirty-some years after the idea was born...

Trust: Book one of The Narvan will soon be published by Caffeinated Press.

Meanwhile, In Editing Land

As of ten days ago, the first draft of The Last God is finished. Which, as you've probably gathered from the title of this post, means I'm now shaping that messy lump of clay into a draft that's more organized, detailed, and coherent.

Having done this a few times now, I have to say that this is probably the cleanest and most complete from beginning to end first draft I've done so far. That only took...ten novels.

So far my major issues seem to be:

- Changing the spelling of several names between the beginning and the end. Thank goodness for find/replace. Except when you change a character name from Lex to Logan and end up with WTF words like compLoganion. Good thing this is only the second draft so I can catch these things before other eyes suffer from my bad habits.

- Sowing details about characters that never pop up again. I wrote the whole novel and then, going back to the beginning, realized I'd given one of the characters a first name that only gets used once.  Another has several abilities that never ended up being utilized, amongst other things.

- Dropping details of important events that never get resolved. After an enemy attacks and is defeated. Their space ship was never mentioned again. Were there people still on it? Did they leave? Are the good guys towing it around? Maybe it evaporated?

So yes, some cleaning going on and a good deal of better stitching events and motivations together as well. The bones are there though, and this is the least amount of rewriting I've ever had to do...so far. I say this as I launch into chapter four. Though, the beginning is usually the roughest part-where I was finding the story and learning the characters. I'm feeling pretty good about the rest. And now I've just cursed myself. Crap. I'm going to stop talking now.