Monday, March 5, 2012

Out of Place

Have you ever been reading one of your manuscripts and found words or sentences that were out of place and did not need to be there?

I bet you have.

Sometimes it takes someone else reading your writing to point this out to you and sometimes you find them yourself. Words and sentences are sometimes hard to cut, but it makes for a better story.

Just like this robin, your words may be pretty, but they do not belong in the picture. This robin would be right at home in the yard pulling  out worms, but I am not used to seeing them sitting on a snow covered branch.


At our last meeting, there were a couple of places in my manuscript that I was not sure about. I wondered if those sentences could be worded differently or completely removed. When my writing friends also pointed out the same areas to me, that told me something had to be done. A few sentences were deleted and others changed around a little to fit in.

You can do a perfectly good paragraph of describing and showing something, then that pesky little last sentence goes and tells what you just got through describing. Strike that pesky little 'out of place' sentence from your manuscript. It is not needed!

The calender is catching up with me. Only ten more days until the deadline to submit my stories to the West Virginia Writer's Conference Writing Contest.

Are you facing any writing deadlines?
I like deadlines! They keep me writing and keep me moving forward.

Happy Writing!

Posted by Janet Smart at Creative Writing in the Blackberry Patch
©Janet F. Smart

7 comments:

  1. Yes, I have definitely found out-of-place words and sentences. It's all part of the process, weeding those out and sometimes adding better ones to replace them.

    Love the picture of the robin.

    I'm new to your blog, nice to meet you!

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  2. I always have this problem when I write. But I have found that I am getting better at seeing them in revisions, at least.

    What a precious robin. Awwww.

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  3. Love the photo! Deadlines keep me on track. Otherwise, I'd blog all day - LOL.

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  4. Janet---Whether it's a good idea or not, right now I'm concentrating on some Chicken Soup submissions. I need to carve out some time to work on pieces for other publications, but haven't as of yet.

    As weird as it sounds, I enjoy the revision process. I guess since I don't know how to work on a car, it's the closest I'll get to tinkering. I'm a "mechanic" with words...

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  5. I wish I was facing a deadline! lol Maybe it would poke me into motion. Right now, they're self-induced. As for changing stuff...I could keep going to infinity when it comes to my writing. lol

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  6. Well, I got hooked on your photo of the robin in the snow! Write on!

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  7. My daughter edited my book. She also edits my blogs.

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Thank you for your comments. I love comments!