BodhipaksaJan 31

Every time I'm writing a book I'm grateful to Benjamin Dreyer, who suggested that every writer should try going a week without using:

* very
* rather
* really
* quite
* so
* of course
* in fact

It's astonishing to search through a draft to find these words. In almost every case a sentence is better off if you just delete them. On rare occasions they serve a purpose, but it's possible to reword in order to get rid of them. But I'd like to train myself not to use them in the first place!

Show threadEugene ParnellFeb 1
@bodhipaksa The best bit of writing advice I ever heard was along the same lines, from some famous author, I forget who, but it stuck in my head. He said "go through your manuscript and get rid of the adverbs. Just search for words ending in -ly and nuke them." At the time I kind of just snorted, because we spent all that time in school learning how to use adverbs, but I tried it, and damned if he wasn't right.
Show threadBodhipaksa

@eugeneparnell Yes, adverbs tend to weaken writing.

The other best thing is to read your writing out loud. You pick up things that way that you miss when you're reading silently. Silent reading doesn't let you hear repetition or awkward phrasing as easily.

I try to do that when I'm writing a book, but it takes a lot of time, especially when you keep stopping to edit.

Alternatively, "hear" your writing being narrated by your favorite NPR host. That can teach you a lot.

Feb 1 at 1:09amWeb