“Little” Habits Make a Big Difference
Everyone has words that become mainstays of their vocabulary. There are pet lists of “crutch words” available online that you can search for which weaken your prose. (“That” is a big one. A good three times out of four, you can eliminate “that” from a sentence because it’s implied.) After you’ve gone through those common “weak” words, go the extra step: Identify YOUR crutch words.
For some reason, mine is “little”; I realized that it comes up a lot in my writing, like “A little shop”, “a little tired”, “a little thing”. So I started to notice it, and did a global search. What did I find? Ugh…
Two-hundred and forty three “little” crutches in my work.
“How the heck did that happen?!” I said to myself. It happened the same way it happens in conversation. We tend to revert to certain phrases, words, or tones of speaking that help define us from the 6 billion OTHER people yammering on all over the planet. This “flavor language” makes us interesting, funny, identifiable from the rest of the crowd- whatever. But in your writing, your characters won’t all speak with the same “verbal mannerisms” that you do, or at least they shouldn’t. They are their own people, after all.
So, how do you identify words that crop up more than others, sneak into descriptions, or become a crutch for your imagery? The short answer is: Read. Read your work. Read it more than once. After you’ve read it? Yeah, you know what I’m going to say: Read it again. I’ll be the first to admit that reading your full-length manuscript after the initial hammer-fest, and then sober first-draft edits is a labor of love- I’ve been editing my book in some shape or form since this past August- but it’s worth it. It should be your priority to make certain your prose is as diverse as the world have created. It will show.
Besides reading? Listen. I know, you’re about to say “What am I supposed to do, read my 350-some-odd page novel to myself out loud?” No. But we live in the computer age. Most computers have seldom-used accessibility software (newer versions of MS-Word have a “Speech” option under the toolbars section), primarily intended for use by the vision-impaired. It’s a fabulous tool for actually hearing what your work sounds like (and what it will sound like in the head of a reader, who will catch every missed word and typo.) I’m writing this blog-post from 30,000 feet while flying home from a very exciting three days in Las Vegas, after which I’ll be using the 5-hour flight to listen to Alex read me “Crossing Clouds” so that I can pick out missed words, strange-sounding phrases, rough edges and the like. I’ve been through the first eight chapters already, and you would not believe the things you might miss with your eyes that will become clear as day when your computer-voice-of-choice is reading things to you. (The brain has this lovely habit of filling in gaps. Clever thing!) The best part is, you can make the changes on the fly as you listen along.
It’s a tough world out there for new writers and established authors alike. Every blog I’ve read has made some mention of publishing cutbacks, killed tours, and piles of queries littering the desks of agents and editors. This is all the more reason to identify the “little” weaknesses in your manuscript, fix them now, and send your absolute best and sharpest work out the door. It could well mean the difference between an enthusiastic full-manuscript request, and a polite “we’ll pass” letter in the mailbox.
