22 October 2015, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part 560, Adverbs Words Best Not Employed Q and A
Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but the publisher
has delayed all their fiction output due to the economy. I'll keep you
informed. More information can be found at www.ancientlight.com. Check out my novels--I think you'll really enjoy
them.
Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon.
This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in
installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in
addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel
was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and
tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this
blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.
I'm using this novel as an example
of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll
keep you informed along the way.
Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my
writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production
schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.
The four plus one basic rules I
employ when writing:
1. Don't confuse your readers.
2. Entertain your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the
writing.
4. Don't show (or tell) everything.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of
your writing.
All novels have five discrete parts:
1. The initial scene (the
beginning)
2. The rising action
3. The climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement
The theme statement
of my 26th novel, working title, Shape, is
this: Mrs. Lyons captures a shape-shifting girl in her pantry
and rehabilitates her.
Here is the cover proposal for Escape
from Freedom. Escape is my 25th novel.
The most important scene in any
novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising
action. I'm on my first editing run-through of Shape.
I'm
an advocate of using the/a scene input/output method to drive the rising
action--in fact, to write any novel.
Scene development:
1. Scene input (easy)
2. Scene output (a little
harder)
3. Scene setting (basic stuff)
4. Creativity (creative
elements of the scene)
5. Tension (development of
creative elements to build excitement)
6. Release (climax of creative
elements)
I can immediately discern three ways
to invoke creativity:
1. History extrapolation
2. Technological extrapolation
3. Intellectual
extrapolation
Creativity is like
an extrapolation of what has been. It is a reflection of something
new created with ties to the history, science, and logic (the
intellect). Creativity requires consuming, thinking, and producing.
One of my blog readers posed these
questions. I'll use the next few weeks to answer them.
7. Words employed
8. Sentence length
9. Complexity
10. Type of grammar
11. Diction
12. Field of reference or
allusion
13. Tone - how tone is created
through diction, rhythm, sentence construction, sound effects, images created
by similes, syntax/re-arrangement of words in sentence, the inflections of the
silent or spoken voice, etc.
14. Mannerism suggest by
speech
15. Style
16. Distinct manner of writing
or speaking you employ, and why (like Pinter's style includes gaps, silences,
non-sequitors, and fragments while Chekhov's includes 'apparent'
inconclusiveness).
Moving on to 7. 7.
Words employed
The list is gone. I’d would be nice to keep it up and add to it
as I thought of more classics. I want to
give you more ideas about the employment of words or the right word for the
moment, but I’m going to come from a different point of view for a moment. Let’s look at words not to use. Here’s the list:
-ly
was
gotten
even
said
got
utilize
These
are words you want to reduce in your writing.
Let's look at adverbs.
-ly
Don't
tell us how someone feels especially by adding adverbial descriptions of
speech. Instead show us how they feel.
"I
don't like cats," he said disgustedly. (not good)
"I
don't like cats," he said with disgust. (a little better)
"I
don't like cats," he gagged. (very good)
This
is a very short explanation from my writing secrets. It doesn’t fully explain the depth of the use
of adverbs. Here is the full of it—and perhaps
it is full of it. You might have heard,
never use adverbs. Or you might have
heard, professional or good writers don’t use adverbs. This very foolish advice began with an
article from Mark Twain on writing. In
the article Mark Twain suggests that adverbs are not a good part of fiction. I think Mr. Twain was using his usual style
of humor to be sarcastic. Adverbs are an
important and useful part of speech.
The
first rule of adverbs is this: don’t normally use an adverb where a verb will
do. For example:
She
spoke quietly. (The verb is spoke and
the adverb is quietly) Instead write:
She
whispered.
In
this case, the verb is very obvious and whispered fits perfectly. On the other hand, there might actually be a
case where whispered is not the proper verb and spoke quietly is the only
choice; however, I suspect for most writing, whispered is the proper
choice. Here is another example:
He
walked quickly. (The verb is walked and the adverb is quickly). Instead write:
He
ran.
He
jogged.
He
trotted.
He
sprinted.
He
made a quick walk. (perhaps too verbose)
If
your characters really did make a quick walk and not a jog, run, trot, or
sprint, you will perhaps want to write: He walked quickly. However, I will tell you, the current flow of
writing is to reduce adverbs at the expense of understanding and
communication. In this case, just
compromise.
There
are many adverbial constructions that can’t be replaced with a verb. For example:
She
baked carefully. You can replace this
with:
She
baked with care.
The
problem is the availability of verbs in English—you only have so many. For simple verbs, always replace adverbial
constructions when you can. On the other
hand, I don’t have a problem with adverbs, but I use them with caution because
I know where the wind blows on this issue.
I don’t purge my writing of adverbs, but I only use them when I
must. For now, I think this is a good practice.
More
tomorrow.
For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:
For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:
http://www.ancientlight.com/
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
fiction, theme, plot, story, storyline,
character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book, writing,
information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
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