I had good news and bad news from an editor that recently reviewed a romance I wrote several years ago. The bad news. . .too passive, too many uses of 'had'.
The good news. . .if I revise, she will look at it again. So, that is what I'm busy doing~a little at a time. I find that if I take it in small increments, it is easier to spot all the past tense areas.
Part of me is a little confused at the current words that we must avoid using. Some of my favorite novels and favorite authors seem to use the words 'had', 'said', and 'was'.
I'm not sure I can write without using these words some of the time. Yet, someone pointed out that one rather famous Christian author avoids the word 'said' at all costs.
For years, I have read that the use of a lot of dialogue tags instead of just 'said', is the mark of an amateur writer. Have the rules changed? Or are the rules just different for the Christian writing market?
Do you believe that this is just a trend~or is it here to stay?
1 comment:
I've heard the same thing that you've heard. But I think the established writers can get by with more. I constantly find myself noticing those type of things when I read books and wonder how they get by with it. Use your 'edit' and 'find' to search for those pesky words we are supposed to avoid in writing. You can't get rid of them all, but a lot of them could probably be tossed.
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