Over the years that I've been a fiction editor, I've noticed several mistakes that keep happening with authors who are starting out in their careers. The first is the use of the 'ly' modifier. More often than not, the 'ly' modifier is nothing more than lazy writing, a quick way of writing something that requires little effort. Consider this example.
"Johnny was seriously mad."
The modifier 'seriously' tells the reader about Johnny's emotional state, but it's always much better to show that same reader what mad looks like.
So, the sentence is vastly improved with a rewrite that goes like,
"Johnny's fists were curled at his sides."
The exact wording is up to the writer, but any good fiction editor will pick up on the difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment