Comments on: Choosing the Right Details

By: Billy

Billy — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 20:35:06 +0000

my brain wants, both, to dive in headfirst with unnecessary play-by-play details, and also make the decisions of which details are irrelevant, all at the same time.

i should probably do a very kitchen-sink approach to this, then pare back.

By: BECCA PUGLISI

BECCA PUGLISI — Mon, 14 May 2018 12:54:43 +0000

In reply to Mary Ann Slavcheff (M.A. De Neve). Yep! So many things we can do to tighten the writing!

By: Mary Ann Slavcheff (M.A. De Neve)

Mary Ann Slavcheff (M.A. De Neve) — Sat, 12 May 2018 14:33:29 +0000

Also mark “ing” verbs. “She was working” becomes -“She worked.” “The boy was playing” works better as “the boy played.” There are hundreds of little tips like this that can make writing so much better.

By: BECCA PUGLISI

BECCA PUGLISI — Sat, 12 May 2018 13:46:12 +0000

In reply to Erika Hayes. The play-by-play is a natural default, I think—wanting to make sure the reader is clear about what's happening. It's just a matter of learning to recognize it and trim it out. :)

By: BECCA PUGLISI

BECCA PUGLISI — Sat, 12 May 2018 13:44:59 +0000

In reply to :Donna. The list is soon long, lol

By: :Donna

:Donna — Sat, 12 May 2018 04:59:08 +0000

You ladies never cease to amaze me. Is there ANYthing you don’t know about writing? lol 😀

By: Erika Hayes

Erika Hayes — Sat, 12 May 2018 00:28:04 +0000

I love this article. I especially agree with the “on the nose” writing. I try to make sure I don’t even waste time writing it, to begin with. I think it is about respecting the reader. They know you have to push a button in the elevator to get to the floor you want. HAHA. I think from all the classes and books I’ve read learning to trim is hard but very necessary. I have the Self Edit book and couldn’t agree more it is fantastic.

By: BECCA PUGLISI

BECCA PUGLISI — Fri, 11 May 2018 13:14:21 +0000

In reply to julie brown. There's so much information we could include; it's hard to know what to add and what to leave out. I'm glad the post is coming in handy :).

By: ANGELA ACKERMAN

ANGELA ACKERMAN — Fri, 11 May 2018 01:09:31 +0000

I think this is one of the areas that trips all writers up at some point–we all know description is gold, but how do we decide which details to describe, and how best can we frame them? Your house/character example is a great example of how layering our description and making it do more can be really powerful…and trim word count!

By: ANGELA ACKERMAN

ANGELA ACKERMAN — Fri, 11 May 2018 00:22:15 +0000

In reply to julie brown.

Yes Julie, that’s because of the GDPR stuff: https://jamigold.com/2018/05/the-new-eu-law-what-all-authors-need-to-know-guest-kharma-kelley/ All websites that have newsletter type lists need to ask their existing users to re-subscribe (or update their details to give consent to use their email address) to continue sending the newsletter. You’ll likely see more of these notices. Technically we only have to send this our to people from the EU, but honestly we believe all people should have their personal data protected, and so it was a good time to ask everyone if they wanted to continue getting our newsletter. We’ve made a few changes to increase security, because we want to make sure any data we have (mainly names and email addresses) is 100% safe.

By: julie brown

julie brown — Thu, 10 May 2018 21:29:28 +0000

Perfect timing on this post as I’m struggling to pinpoint the right details (and get rid of the unnecessary ones) in my WIP. On a somewhat unrelated note, just want to confirm that you sent the email asking us to verify subscriptions to the newsletter. Is this a mailchimp requirement? I definitely want to KEEP FOLLOWING YOU!
Thanks much,
julie

By: Lita

Lita — Thu, 10 May 2018 15:22:59 +0000

Great advice, thank you! 🙂