When I submitted my first book to my
new publisher, I was certain that she would find nothing to edit except a few minor
misspellings. I was so naive. My publisher was considerate when she
demonstrated her opinion. My most glaring violation of basic writing style was
my overuse of the most hackneyed word in writing history, the word VERY. I have
to smile on the inside every time I think about my use of the word VERY 258 times
in one book. It was by far the most used word in the book.
I only used that word four times in
my last book, and all four were in the colloquial speech of one of my
characters. I learned to replace ‘very’ with a description of ‘why’ very. I can
normally write a sentence or two (sometimes a paragraph or two, or three, or
four) to paint the picture of ‘why’ very. Like one of the members of my writers
guild said, “Write as though you are using brail to describe a movie to a blind
man.” ‘Very pretty’ just doesn’t cut it.
For me, the best example of how not
to use ‘very’ in writing was in the novel Lost And Found by E.L. Irwin.
An impressionable young lady notices the hands of the male leading man for the
first time.
Irwin didn’t say, ‘He had very
interesting hands.’ Irwin said that, ‘He had interesting hands.’ Then she spent
three paragraphs describing why they interesting to the leading woman. She
wrote three paragraphs telling of every callous, stain and blemish that spoke
of strength, character and honor. The passage was perfect.
Needless to say, I took notice.
I now have a new habit. Once a month,
or so, as I’m writing, I take a day and I ‘search’ for a list of undesirable words in my work. I always
start with the word ‘very.’ I must not recognize the word when I’m writing
because it always seems to be able to sneak in somewhere. Sometimes I replace
the word from a list of synonyms. Sometimes I write more in the section to ‘paint’
the word in prose. As an obsession, I eliminate the word.
I have a list of words that I try to
eliminate or paint over, so to speak. Most of them can be found on these web
sites. Since I’ve been cleansing my writing, I’ve been told that my writing
seems tighter, more concise. I like that. Apply these sites
and word changes to your work and see what you think
I, personally, was very gratified with the results.
My name is Jeff Bailey. I am the
author of The
Defect. I based the story line for The Defect on my years of
experience building, testing, starting up, and operating nuclear power plants
for the U.S. Army, private utilities, and in research. I also derived elements
of the story from the true events surrounding the meltdown of the Three Mile
Island Nuclear Power Station in Pennsylvania and the assault by a hooded gunman
on the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Station in Tennessee. Deer Hawk
Publications released The
Defect in June of 2016. I have three more books in the publishing loop
and five story-boarded.
Welcome to my World.
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