[flickr id=”6818404384″ thumbnail=”small” overlay=”true” size=”small” group=”” align=”left”]I first started my serious attempt at writing about 5 years ago. I always enjoyed writing, I loved the challenge of it, the escape of it – but never had I thought to try for the harsh, cruel world of publishing.
Five years ago I dove in blind. No one told me how harsh & cruel it was. Nope. I learned that shiznit all on my own.
Today I like to call myself older and wiser. At least I like to pretend I’m wiser. All it ever takes is one conversation with another writer to realize I’m blind to yet another error in my writing.
I look back at my first attempts (or even first drafts) and I cringe. So many times in writing I’m a whore.
An Adverb Whore (oh, that was my longest stint into writer whoring – I had a deep, sick love for the -ly’s). Then I became a Head-Hopping Whore. I tried to fit as many of those POV’s into one chapter as I could. For a brief stint I dabbled in Purply Prose Whoring (so this still slips in once in a while – I write romance a little purple makes it in).
The other day thanks to some DFL (Another post on that soon) I found a new friend, a fellow writer. In general conversation about editing she mentioned having to take out all of the “was” in her novel.
I heard alarm bells. Screeching alarm bells.
Turns out I’m a Whore for a good (or is it bad?) “Was”. In my 90k novel, I started with 1400+ before I began weeding them out. I don’t have a target to drop them to, but I’m reviewing and removing what I can as I go. I’d like to get that number way down.
So what are you a Whore for? What slips its way into your writing without you noticing because you enjoy the company of a familiar error?
I can’t wait to get a clue-in to my next flagrant whore-out. </end sarcasm>
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*IGEH = Insert Grammatical Error Here
I have to go back and edit out ‘just’ and any substitute like “simply” and “merely.” I overuse ‘was’ too, so you have a compatriot with that one.
@Tara R.,
Oh, the horrors you face when you put your work out there, right? You always find there’s something you did not catch.
this is why I’m scared shitless of actual writing. I’ll always be a blogger, where gramatical errors reign supreme!
@DesignHER Momma,
LOL! I know, blogging is a great outlet to allow more freedom for that. From time to time my BFF & I still go back to the land of RPG where we can be as whorish with our adverbs as we want to be and let our grammar just be completely wrong. AFter weeks of cross-eyed editing sometimes we just need that escape. 🙂
I have a bad habit of…instead of saying He breathed down my neck, I for some reason sometimes type: He was breathing down my neck. So was and ING words.
LOL. You’ve seen that I have a tendency for those too, Tara. I’ve gotten better since I became more aware of the ‘was’ – but they still pop in all the time.
Should we start a 12 step program? Hehe.