No Adverbs Here

It has a long road to publication for my manuscript, Secret, Lies, and Trash, but it will at last see the light at the end of the tunnel in a few months. Recently, I completed the first set of revisions from my editor at Midnight Frost Books and received a peek at my cover design. Both very exciting and nerve-racking occurrences.

Since quite a bit of sweat and tears goes into creating a novel, being asked to make changes can be a daunting task. Characters live in your mind. So terminating them or even renaming one or two can be a difficult decision.

However, after reading my editor's comments and making the required set of adjustments, a valuable lesson has been learned. While I may have felt the initial temptation to dig my heels in and resist the changes, in the end they made my novel stronger and will help with future projects.

Choosing names can always be a tricky bit, but picking ones which are similar are to be avoided. Perhaps editors do not give readers enough credit to be able to identify the characters. Yet, the point does make sense. If you have people in your story whose names are too similar or begin with the same letter, they can be easily mixed up. It's a simple plot point to avoid in the future; make sure you vary the name structure in your story, be it first or last names.

When it comes to point of view, decide on one and maintain it throughout the manuscript. I really love a story which is related in the first person. However, I have also read books where it switches from first to third. Of course, the change occurs at breaks, but such semantics are to be avoided unless of course you are a well-knows author and can tell your story which ever way you choose. Since I am not even in the same league as Mary Higgins Clark, I did some rewrites and adjusted the POW to reflect just my protagonist. In the future, I will dodge any such issues by sticking to one.

As a writing instructor, you teach children to enrich their language by using colorful adjectives and adverbs. Be wary of overuse though. Too much of a good thing can clog up and slow down the flow of your story. I didn't realize I was in love with adverbs.

In writing, beware of evil works. They can come out of the keyboard and bite you. Not sure what evil words are? Neither was I. They are words such as need, know. In other words, choose a more vibrant vocabulary and stay away from the common place.

All authors tend to use particular words too much. I was shocked how many times I relied on certain ones as well as how much better the text sounded without them.

A completely impartial third party who reads and evaluates your work in an invaluable tool.  I may have bristled at some comments, but after careful reflection learned they made my story better.