HOW TO SELF-EDIT Part 1 - Get in touch with your Inner Bitch

They call it 'Killing off your Darlings'. I call it Justified Homicide.

First, find your word, your pet word. We all have one. Mine is 'that', followed a fair way back by 'should'.

This is the first word you do a 'find' on, the first word you need to cull. You'll find this word is redundant - you can delete it and not have to change another word in the writing.

Your secondary words might mean the work needs to be massaged to get rid of them but it will be stronger and better.

Then you need to hunt down and consider the 'ly' and 'ing' words.

Some of the 'ly' words are noble beasts and worth keeping, most are mangy, weak, over-worked and near death anyway. It'll be a mercy killing.

The 'ing' words mean your work is passive. Passive is not good. It's like someone has taken your hand in their wet, limp one and is trying to convince you that telling you about the roller coaster ride is much better than actually going on it. It's weak, it's wimpy. You need to be hard and ruthless - this is your new mantra.

Deleting both 'ly' and 'ing' words means you have to find stronger verbs. You have to think about your work and eliminate the feeling that you 'might, kind-of-would' like someone to read and enjoy your work. Be hard and ruthless - you want to grab the reader's mind and trap them there. You can't do it with a frog handshake.

Start with this - find your word and murder it. Hunt down the ly and ing. Don't touch anything else until you have done that. Be hard and ruthless. You'll surprise yourself when you discover your word. You won't have even realised you had one.

At least 7 'that's' were sacrificed in writing the above.

Jennifer