Trite Expressions and Redundancy...On the Way to Concise Writing

When writing, one of the most challenging tasks is to avoid trite expressions and useless words. From telling a story to composing a letter, or writing that master's thesis, your writing must be concise.

Let's start with those pesky, trite expressions, also referred to as cliches, such as "blind as a bat" and "face the music". No matter our dedication to avoid them, they seem to sink their way back into our subconscious and pop up in our writing like the sneaky little critters they are. Face it, they are nothing more than the result of lazy writing.

The idea would be to find a unique and creative substitute that makes your writing your writing. And it's obviously not easy. Who said writing was easy? No wise person I know would. At least to achieve quality writing. For example, instead of "he raised his eyebrows" why not "his eyebrows formed a question mark when he couldn't figure out what the clue meant". Just play with your words a bit, try to describe the action or thought as concisely as you can. Here is a site to read and study about cliches and redundancy:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/concise.htm

Of course, I don't expect you can avoid all cliches, but if your writing is crowded with them, you've lost the opportunity to show your individual style. You owe that much to yourself, if you are going to call yourself a writer.

A Recommendation

Being that it's summer break for me, I find myself devouring books while I try very hard, and I must say with much distraction, to work on my next writing project. Ahh.... the joy of summer! Anyway, I wanted to pass along my recommendation for your summer reading list. The title is The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman. Anyone who has read works by Hoffman will understand when I say this story will tear you apart, send your emotions into a turmoil that will leave you spent, but fulfilled at the same time. And you will come away perhaps a bit scarred with the wear and tear, but definitely as a wiser person. At least that is how I feel my experience has been. Obviously, not every book can do this, but when it does I feel so lucky to have found it and want to share it with others.

This is about fate and if you have ever had one of those moments in your life, an event that changed your future and that of everyone around you, for better or worse, then you will appreciate the story this novel tells. I won't say more than that. (I tend to give too much away once I get started.) But if you decide to read it, I'm pretty certain you won't be disappointed.

Joining A Writers' Forum -- Pros and Cons In My Opinion

I know, I know... it's been a while, a long, long while. My time away from here has been well spent... more or less. I wanted to try out a website --a writers' forum for showcasing and critiquing work--to see how beneficial it might be. After a couple of months, I've come to some interesting observations and conclusions.

The website is fanstory.com and is open to anyone who is serious about writing, sharing their work and/or critiquing others. After spending what I felt was an adequate amount of time being actively involved both in submitting writing pieces and reviewing others' works, I found both pros and cons to the site.

I'll start with the negatives. First of all, while other writers' sites are free to join, fanstory has a price, if you want to partake in all features such as submitting your writing or entering contests. It's $6.95 a month or $48 for a year's membership. For limited use, there is a "free" membership. Once you join, you may post as many writings as you like, though you may be limited to how many you post in a twenty-four hour period, depending on the category. You may enter contests, but many of them cost member dollars. Member dollars can be accumulated by reviewing others' works. When you search for pieces to review, you will find that each offers anywhere from 2 cents to over a dollar in exchange for your comments. Each time you review you add the "money" to your "account". Then after you accumulate a significant amount you can use your member dollars to help promote your posted work. Also, member dollars can be purchased with a charge card, if you don't review that much and need the bucks. I think you can see where I am going with this. Members who post work that offers a sizable amount of member dollars and cents will get the most reviews because members want to accumulate dollars, as much as and as quickly as they can, so they in turn can offer big bucks to promote their work to get lots of reviews. Whew! Are you as dizzy as I am? Do you feel like the mouse on the treadmill? As for contests, many of them, which can be created by members as well as the fanstory staff, may be free or may charge member dollars to enter. Yet, another way for you to make money as well as spend it.

However, there are several benefits to this forum. First, there are many stellar reviewers on board. They offer some great insight and are painfully honest at times. But then again, isn't that what you want? Not a pat on the back from Aunt Maude, telling you what a wonderful writer you are, when in fact your work may be crap. So, in this respect you may have the opportunity to improve some aspects of your writing. Another perk involves reading others' works. You get the opportunity to see what's out there, both good and bad. And in reviewing you may learn things as well. With the contests, though you may find some that cost to enter, if you win, you take away the "pot" and with the staff generated contests the winner may take away a gift card for as much as $100. Overall, this forum encourages you to write, to keep practicing your craft. Rather like taking an exercise class to keep you disciplined and in shape. In my experience, I came away with a splendid reviewer who now critiques my work through an email exchange. I feel fortunate in that respect.

So, would I recommend fanstory? I think it is worth trying out, if you have a lot of time to devote to it. The site has a significant following and many neat features to participate in. It is well-organized, very user friendly, and monitored for any inappropriate activity (at least that is what they claim). The main drawback -- and this is what makes it less than fair -- is the use of member dollars. Too often, though not always, the work that gets the most reviews and wins many of the contests is the one that offers the most member dollars as a payoff. Still, it is worth a look. It doesn't cost anything to peruse the site, or even to partake in some of the features. But for the "full course meal" you're going to have to pay. There are other writers' forums out there. You should check them out before spending money on any. Happy writing!

Name That Novel #3

Name the novel and the author.

"'Our Lady is not some magical being out there somewhere, like a fairy godmother. She's not the statue in the parlor. She's something inside of you. Do you understand what I'm telling you?' 'Our Lady is inside me,' I repeated, not sure I did."

Okay, I'm going to add another passage that might be more telling, give it a few days, and if there are no takers, I'll give up the answer :-) So, here goes...

"At night I would lie in bed and watch the show, how bees squeezed through the cracks of my bedroom wall and flew circles around the room, making that propeller sound, a high pitched zzzzzz that hummed along my skin....The way those bees flew, not even looking for a flower, just flying for the feel of the wind, split my heart down its seam."

I guess I will have to reveal the answer: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd -- which of course was made into a movie, currently out on dvd.

Name that Novel #2

Sorry, I am a day late with this, but here goes. Name the novel and the author:

"When I pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we could also perceive they were quite black and naked."

Good luck.

Congratulations to Liz who guessed correctly: Robinson Crusoe by Defoe.

Contests and Such

Well, I guess I'm going to self-indulge for a moment and write a few words (or a lot more, as I seldom write just a few!) about my latest project - a mystery novel, Whips, Cuffs, and Little Brown Boxes. Quite by accident I stumbled upon a contest given by Amazon and Penguin Books. They first started this project a few years ago. In any case, I felt it wouldn't hurt to give my work a bit of exposure. So, I entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2009 Contest. Besides, it was free. And I'm all about saving a dollar. The number of entrants could be no more than 10,000. I don't know if that's what they came up with, but authors had only a small window of time to get their work entered -- one week -- and then the doors closed so to speak. The first cut would be dwindled down to 2,000. This was based on the pitch. I made it over that hurdle. Then, those 2,000 had their excerpts read by reviewers who would write comments and rate the excerpts. These scores would then reduce the numbers down to 500. Well, I didn't make it to that next level, but I did get a couple of encouraging reviews. At least encouraging enough to make me trudge onward in the pursuit of getting it published :-) So, for those who are interested in reading what they had to say, and to comment if you wish, here they are:

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Reviews

ABNA Expert Reviewer #1:

Wonderful title and suspenseful opening. Nice transition between childhood hide-and-seek games into the present action. Original twist: a mystery writer who does her own research, literally, even when telling herself that she won't get involved. Excellent way to show mom's priorities: her sister's missing and she's concentrating on Lilly's single status. I like that the protagonist isn't a flawless super-hero type but someone who has real emotions.

Hilarious in places, the humor keeps the action moving right along and makes the reader want to know what will happen next.

ABNA Expert Reviewer #2:

The excerpt certainly starts with a bang and catches the reader's attention. The beginning paragraphs of the flashback though are a little drawn out and might be tempting to skim over.

However, the novel seems to gather steam again and, by the time dialogue between the protagonist and her mother is introduced, the dialogue is, for the most part, smooth and informative without being too obvious.

The Paranormal ability does make one curious and the humorous tone promises to be entertaining. However, none of this promises great literature or a deep examination of the human condition.

I'm guessing that this is a romance novel with an erotic hint to it and the scene is set by the time the excerpt ends - The heroine is a feisty, paranormally gifted, single female with a love interest and a mystery to solve. It seems to predict a novel which will provide an entertaining afternoon of reading even if it won't reveal any earth shattering truths.

Name that Novel #1

I'm going to try something new and what I hope will be fun. Each week, I will post a quote from some classic or contemporary work and then hopefully you will guess where it belongs -- title and author. And good luck! So here's the first week's quote, and I'll start with one that's rather easy, I think:

"Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next."

Congrats to Ares for coming up with Alice in Wonderland. But I also asked for the author....anyone care to respond? And thank you, Ares. As well as to Laughing Idiot who was right on Ares' coat tails with the title answer :-)

Congratulations once again... Ares answered Lewis Carroll. :-) Come back and visit next week for another quote to name that novel!