I’m as guilty as the next writer in that I include redundancies in my draft manuscript. When I’m writing my draft, I focus on getting the story out of my head and into the computer. I look for redundancies when I revise my story. And I revise it more times than I want to count!…
Every writer has words she or he uses too often. I call them crutch words. Words like “well, smiled, laughed, however, tears, cried” etc., in addition to adverb usage. These words aren’t easily spotted when you revise simply because you’re looking at other things like character and plot development. So today I’m going to show…
In his book The Art of War for Writers, James Scott Bell says, [E]very character in every scene must have an objective, otherwise he shouldn’t be there. Replace him with a chair. Review your WIP. If you find a character(s) who is superfluous? Do as Bell suggests, rewrite the scene and cut the character. Now reread the…