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Saturday, January 31, 2009

That's that!

I received my first edits from my editor for Fang Face, and learned that... oops ... learned I use the word 'that' too much.

She asked me to kill off about 70-80% of them, and rub out as many passive verbs as possible.

As I go through the manuscript, zapping 'thats' along the way, it becomes obvious that she's right, the book reads better without all of the thats.

That's (this one's okay) one of the things that (this one's not) you have to know about editors ... their goal is the same as yours, to make your book the best it can be. They aren't Republicans, er, obstructionists, they aren't being word nazi's, and they aren't trying to show off their command of language. They simply want a well crafted book.

So back to my editing. I'd like to get this first run done within a few more days.

Norm

http://fangface.homestead.com

6 comments:

  1. You meant Nazis, didn't you? It's not possessive.

    Backing slowly out of room now,

    Dani
    http://bloodredpencil.blogspot.com

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  2. And neither is "werewolf's" in your poll. Jeez. Good think you have an editor, dude.

    LOL.

    D.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Crap
    (note only one exclamation point)

    ReplyDelete
  4. That was so informative - and very important lesson I too learned the hard way many moons ago!

    Happy that-zapping!
    Regan

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  5. Funny how you think you'll get away with using a word once in a while and before you know it, it's all over the place. Did you get rid of all the justs also?

    Morgan Mandel
    http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. LOL. This talk of editing.... I make the exact same sort of mistakes. "was" is someting to watch for too. I once counted how many times I used it in a 1st-person story (10pg long)... The number was HUGE. So I completely understand the that-zapping mode.

    Hasta la Vista,
    Iris Black
    (Yes I am in Spanish1 and I know exactly what it means.) =D

    ReplyDelete