Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Writing Quirks (or What Line Edits Tell Me)

Tip of the Day: Newest procrastination device: Wii Jeopardy!

After my last round of line edits on my YA from my agent, I learned of a couple more writing quirks that I have. Keep in mind, these are in addition to the ones I already know of, namely:
--too many "justs"
--too many "blah blah blah, BUT etc etc etc..." phrases
--too many "backs"
--long dialogs that don't go anywhere but are fun to write

So the new things that I must find/replace in future manuscripts:
--brand names (oh my gosh, I am a marketer's dream), including foods, TV shows, clothing companies, store names, etc.
--overuse of a funky term that my character likes
--extended dialogs for the sake of them being fun for me to write

What did we do before find/replace?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

4 comments:

Jennifer Hoffine said...

I overlove "just" and "but" and "Still," too.

DeenaML said...

Oh man, I was the JUST queen for a while there - I think I replaced it with BACK. Ha!

Kate Fall said...

I'm the queen of the overextended dialogue. Gotta cram that last punchline in no matter what. Sometimes I think only the Muppet Show will go farther down the trail than I will for a gag line.

DeenaML said...

Kate, as evidenced by your post here, you ARE hilarious and maybe your dialog is perfect. ;)