DOESN'T LIKE IT
Friday, November 12, 2010
Words the Rejectionist uses too much: just, also, just, also, which, just, also, really, excellent, incomprehensible, pretty, pretty much, pretty much any adverb you can think of, sort of, kind of, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (okay, not really). WHAT KIND OF IDIOT WRITES BOOKS WHY DID WE WANT TO BE A WRITER WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN OUR GREATEST AMBITION TO BE A CASH REGISTER REPAIRPERSON OR SOMETHING NNNGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH FIZZGIG FIZZGIG
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My brothers always used to say I always said always.
Now I do never.
OMG FIZZGIG! Look at him go, he's like the Energizer bunny.
Apparently, I like "just." Oh, and "apparently." I'm going to have to add in fizzgig. It sounds like a delightful aperitif.
Right there with you. I did a search and replace for the word "just" in this last round of edits: used it 355 times...in a 266-page ms. Screw it. Decided to keep most of them. It's just pretty much an excellent word.
I recently discovered a new crutch word in my writing: "began/started," eg, "He began wondering" rather than the much stronger "He wondered." The thing that makes me go nuts is that I can't just search and replace this crutch, because I have to alter all the verbs. GRRRRRRRR! All revision and no imagining make Diane go crazy!
I do this ALL THE TIME. Not just (argh) the use of words like "just" and "actually", but also opening my mouth and stomping my feet like Fizzgig. Only my husband can never remember his name, so he says I'm acting like "that little fuzzball from the Dark Crystal who's nothing but teeth and tail."
Word Cloud, darling, word cloud. Then a thesaurus and your handy edit/find feature. We all do it. Do not leave QUERTY key imprints on your pretty face from headdesking. We ALL do it.
My personal screaming Fizzgig is aimed at my characters' facial tics and completely inability to sit still.
They smirk, smile (all sizes), grimace, blink, look, glance, frown, snort, sigh, exhale, let out breaths,tilt their heads, fiddle with things, etc., etc., etc.
I'm not sure whose meds need to be adjusted, but it's my subconscious, so . . .
My Fizzgigs are: a little, just, and people fidgeting with their glasses while they're talking.
As for adverbs, I joined a new writer's group last month with no warning that the adverb police would be in attendance.
Their captain (who showed up wearing a bowler hat with no irony) proceeded to hand me back a copy of my draft with EVERY 'ly' in EVERY adverb circled. Then told me how many there had been (it was an admitted(ly) appalling 20), and gave me a lecture on showing not telling. I was tempted to show (and tell) him that his story with the lady vampire who liked to push guys to the ground before she ate them said more about his interests than it did about the plot or any character development.
Instead I took a deep breath and reminded myself that Jane Austen used adverbs so they can't be all bad.
Sigh. Everyone sighs in my works. Sometimes they even say things with a sigh. And I'm sighing now since I don't seem to have sound with this video. I love Fizzgig. Sigh.
Mine (or, rather, one of mine) is having the characters do something *in spite of* something. Like, "although it was bright enough to see by the moon, he turned on the flashlight".
"Felt" and "eyes" fell right behind character names for my 53k ms.
BTW, how much crack has that Fizzgig consumed?
Dear Rejectionist, Author-Friends, and Fizzgig,
I lift my cup in a toast to all of you and all of your adverbs. And all of mine. Huzzah for adverbs!
XOXO
The Careerist
Diane T! There IS AN ANSWER! Please go to Gary Corby's blog to see how he uses advanced searches to suss out the "...ing" form of verbs: http://blog.garycorby.com/2010/02/advanced-searching-in-microsoft-word.html
Gary also uses autocorrect to help him avoid those tricky favorite-but-ultimately-meaningless words. For example, everytime he uses the word "just", his computer replaces it automatically with NO! NO! NO!
http://blog.garycorby.com/2010/02/autocorrect-is-your-friend.html
What kind of idiot writes books, you say? SMART idiots, that's who.
Never mind about the writing tics. It sucks to have them, but it can't be helped. At least you've got the opportunity to take them out when you're rewriting and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting until you can rewrite no more... and then rewriting a bit more.
Hmmm, your personal muppet seems agitated. I'm thinking you need, a) a break, b)more chocolate, c) something alcoholic, no, make that a double. It IS Friday
Alas, you can't escape fools, lol! They grow better than weeds.
My bad-boy lover is 'That'. I can't quit him.
Yeah, Wordle is a fun way to weed out your Fizzgigs.
Oh, Le R - I feel your pain. I also love the ever living holy hell out of "just." It's just my favorite word ever! However, there are worse things. In my first draft, PEOPLE READ MINDS. I swear to God. "Blah, blah, blah," says Supporting character. "It's as though she read my mind," thinks Main Character. I mean, seriously. READING MINDS.
I pretty much really just seem to feel sort of the same way also.
Don't be sad, Le R. After all, "also" is just a really excellent word, without which some sentences would be pretty much incomprehensible.
I say you've bested me wombat. Touché.
Dear Alternate-Reality Registionist,
Because cash register repair blogs are notoriously dull.
Thanks, CKHB! Great tips there, including the bracket one in his Comments on "just."
Personally, I like finding just, that, and really in my early drafts, 'cause 1) it shows I'm onto their nefarious scheme to foul my tale, and 2) I enjoy slashing them out so much.
OMG FIZZGIG I LOVE YOU.
After I admitted my addiction to the words just, really, and pretty (along with the really fascinating additions of huh? and you know? at the end of most dialogue), I found out most authors I know do the same thing. We can't help it we're all just really pretty.
AND OMG WHY CAN I NOT REMEMBER WHO FIZZGIG IS?!? THIS IS RIDICULOUS I KNOW I KNOW HIM BUT I CAN'T THINK OF IT FOR THE LIFE OF ME! (subtitled: thank goodness for google, off I go)
erica
Suddenly! Everything happens suddenly in my books! Because why should I write unexpected and exciting things when I can just TELL you that they are unexpected and exciting with the word 'suddenly'?
GAH!
I love Fizzgig too.
I say 'interesting' too much.
Also, on the subject of muppets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqc9jdZ-zlM
"Just" kills me. One month I tried to give up using "just" and it was hella hard. "Just" and "really". They are murder. I have to do searches for them constantly.
I have great respect for cash register repair persons, I do. However, I doubt that even their greatest ambition is to be a cash register repair person.
I suspect 9 out of 10 of them would rather be a karaoke god. Either that or a reality television star.
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