Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. - Mark Twain Very damn good advice. I'm tempted to take that advice. It is easier when editing and redrafting to delete expletives and obscenities than it is to remove extraneous adjectives,
Sometimes, if I stop and read certain passages aloud, I can hear by the cadence of the words where the flow slows.
It's a ponderous procedure, and I think using damn and its literary ken would make my rewrites go very uh damn much easier.
It's a rather gray and stormy but pleasant day. I'm sitting at the window of my aerie; editing/critiquing the first 50 pages of an area writer's memoir; enjoying the journey; taking an occasional sip of brew; and glancing out at the rain. It doesn't get much better than this.
I low-balled my price because, right now, I just need to earn as much cash as I can. I usually charge $3-6 per double-spaced page for light edit and one page critique - quoted $2 on this one. I could get more in Atlanta and even more in New York, but this is Birmingham, Alabama - a very different market.
Editing is a kind of writing, too. It is easier to look at another's words and know how it can be better. It is sometimes slow-going, because as with my own work, I read certain passages aloud to hear their cadence. They have to sound right. After all we're telling a story and if it cannot sing to us when read aloud, it will never resonate on the page. When I'm through, I'll go back to editing my own words with a fresh eye, and a little more objective hand.
The author is a little stiff, but he does have a story to tell. I'm enjoying the read and hope that with my objective help, he will be encouraged to finish the manuscript and might even see publication.
first 50 pages of an area writer's memoir; enjoying the journey; taking an occasional sip of brew; and glancing out at the rain. It doesn't get much better than this.