#they sure will walk through a variety of metaphors and similes to avoid saying the word

[jamiesfootball]

One of the things that hurts the most about Roy smacking the fork out of Jamie’s hand at Ola’s — aside from the show wanting to play for laughs what was an incredibly jarring moment. Like, there would have been other ways to accomplish the same joke of ‘haha, Jamie doesn’t know what he’s getting into’ without resorting to as violent a gesture that Jamie — with his known history of abuse and habit of flinching away from sudden potentially violent gestures — had to flinch and protectively cover his hands against his chest, reminding us, the audience, of that history of abuse. Roy could’ve pulled the plate and the fork away. He could’ve eaten the meatball Tom Wambsgans-style. He could’ve even glared him into putting it down.

But no, what hurts the most about that scene at Ola’s isn’t Roy snacking the fork out of Jamie’s hand. Or the waitress admonishing him like making a mess and wasting food was the problem. Or Roy apologizing to the waitress and then telling Jamie to clean up the mess

What hurts the most is in the next cut to him, Jamie actually has cleaned the mess off the wall

[but-the-library-of-alexandria]

Some Off-The-Cuff Writing Editing Tips bc I’m Writing and Editing Today

I’m editing my essay and splurge-writing my novel today: after doing the editing it’s become harder to free write without editing, as is my policy for this novel draft, because I’m hyper-aware of all the flaws haha

so, some tips, to get them out of my head:

If you have to read a sentence twice, that sentence needs clarifying or simplifying. All your sentences should make sense without interrupting the flow of reading. Maybe you need to switch some clauses around, break it into shorter sentences, or simplify the language. This can be really tricky, I know; sometimes it feels like, ‘this is the only way to say it!’ If that’s the case, leave it and come back to it later; it might make more sense then. 

Leave your writing for at least one day before you edit it. You can edit immediately after finishing writing something, but if you do, you should go through it again another day. If your writing is so fresh in your mind that you remember every word you wrote, your brain might be filling it what it remembers writing rather than letting you read what’s actually on the page, and you’ll end up skimming and missing some typos. You’ll read it too quickly, thinking I know what I wrote. I usually get my dad to read for typos, because he’s the slowest reader I know; slow reading = better typo-finding.

If you have used a colon and/or a semicolon more than once in a sentence that is not a list, it needs to be two sentences. The same could be said of dashes but - as exemplified here - a pair of dashes forming a sidenote is fine. Also, don’t try to use semicolons if you don’t know how; god knows I wish I could turn back time and erase them from my vocabulary because I do know how to use them and boy do I use them, waayyy too much. modern writing doesn’t really need them. 

As my professor once wrote on an essay I handed in, any sentence that goes on for six lines is too long. Yes, I actually Did That. 

Think about terms of address. This is big issue in my novel atm; the pov switches from chapter to chapter, and the characters are getting to know each other slowly so the terms of address will change not only from chapter to chapter, but also as the story goes on. You may call that character by their name in your head, but maybe your narrator would call them by a nickname, or by their surname/title. This is, believe it or not, actually somewhat applicable to essay-writing too: the amount of times I’ve almost referenced a familiar academic or character/figure by their first name...

Unless you’re writing sarcastically/ironically, in first person/inner monologue, or for children/childishly, exclamation marks in the narration usually read badly. I’m sure it can be done, but it’s usually best to avoid it. Unless you’re using the exclamation mark to indicate a tone of voice, consider if it’s deflating rather than adding to the tension of your sentence. It’s a voice-focused piece of punctuation and should really be reserved for speech or inner monologue. 

Adverbs are not evil (despite popular opinion), but double adverbs are usually a bad idea. The same goes for double adjectives. If they describe two different things or two different aspects of a thing - eg, pink and white stripes, walking slowly and carefully, or silent and deadly assassin - you can get away with it, but only sparingly. If you have two adverbs/adjectives that say basically the same thing - she was quiet and shy, this is correct and true, she writes plainly and clearly - scrap one, or find a new word that better encompasses the subtleties of both. If you’re using a lot of adverbs, maybe question whether the verbs need to be talking louder instead. But remember, no entire word group is inherently bad, c’mon writing tips people why do you want to destroy adverbs??

‘Purple Prose’ is not evil either, but consider where your metaphors/similes/description may have gotten too extensive and broken the flow of your writing. Too much of any one thing clumped together can ‘clog up’ your writing, so consider if maybe certain chunks of description - or monologue or speech - could be making this section monotonous, and maybe break it up with something else or shorten it. Variety is helpful for keeping people interested. 

Have you jumped? By this I mean, have you stopped talking about one thing and gone straight on to something totally different? Jumps can be okay, as long as they’re clearly signposted, and as long as the end of the last section and the beginning of the new one are well-closed and well introduced respectively. Any big gaps need to be at least slightly bridged. Alternatively, you could not jump at all and fill the gap in. 

Are you overusing or repeating one word or phrase? I once read a biography of JK Rowling that used the phrase ‘deliriously happy’ for every single good moment in her life. I hated that phrase by the end. Try not to use the same word or phrase to describe everything. It can be hard to spot this in your own writing so beta readers are helpful here. WARNING: this does not go for ‘said’! You are allowed to use ‘said’ and other simple words as much as you like! people will, however, pick up if you use a more specific word too frequently. A comment on my last graded piece was ‘stop saying understanding’ - I’d used it three times in two sentences... 

I’m sure there’s lots more, but that’s all that comes to mind right now. Please remember that these are TIPS and note RULES - there are no ‘rules’ to writing, you do you, this is just what helps me and some common things my teachers have advised me against

please add your own tips to this post and let’s make it into an editing masterpost!