{"id":1845,"date":"2009-11-07T09:33:10","date_gmt":"2009-11-07T15:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/?p=1845"},"modified":"2009-11-29T20:54:57","modified_gmt":"2009-11-30T02:54:57","slug":"nanowrimo-dirty-trick-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/2009\/11\/nanowrimo-dirty-trick-1\/","title":{"rendered":"#NaNoWriMo: Dirty Trick #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, in the comments, Chuck<\/a> said:<\/p>\n

I usually aim for the middle ground on first drafts \u2014 I know it\u2019s not going to be perfect, but I aim for a solid B to B+ range. Hell, I\u2019m going to go through five drafts anyway \u2014 but if my first draft is littered with lots of little problems, I\u2019m looking at six or seven drafts. Further, the little issues take a lot lot lot of time to go back and fix. So, for me, it\u2019s a matter of economizing the process. Fixing small errors now \u2014 largely by making sure they don\u2019t happen in the first place \u2014 actually saves me a shit-ton of time on the back end.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So here’s the thing. Chuck is totally right.<\/p>\n

I’m walking a dangerous line here, because when you’re working a NaNoWriMo project, going back and editing is a phenomenally bad idea that will put you in the hole on wordcount faster than anything, so I don’t want to tell you to do any editing at this point. Perish the thought.<\/p>\n

But there are<\/em> a few things you can do using your brain-thinking-thing<\/em> so the words you put down aren’t as bad as they might otherwise be. A few very very very simple rules you can follow.<\/p>\n

However, I still<\/strong> wouldn’t mention them, except for one thing.<\/p>\n

*looks around*<\/p>\n

*leans in*<\/p>\n

*whispers*<\/p>\n

A couple of these rules, like the one I’m going to talk about today, will actually give you more words than if you don’t follow it.<\/p>\n

Dirty Trick: No Adverbs<\/h1>\n
\"Sorry,<\/a>
Sorry, did you just say "She held the gun tremblingly?"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The road to hell is paved with adverbs. – Stephen King<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s a pretty strong vote against the adverb. It’s a pretty widely accepted rule among writers, though perhaps King is the most passionate about it.<\/p>\n

Well, and me. I’m kind of rabid about adverbs, but not for the same reason. I don’t like them because they kill my word count.<\/p>\n

Examples:<\/em><\/p>\n

“What’s up?” he said smilingly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*wince* Right. That sucks. Let’s try it without the adverb.<\/p>\n

“What’s up?” he said with a smile.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ehh. Better. Marginally less wince-worthy, and more words. Okay. Some people will grouse about how words can’t come with a smile, but whatever.<\/p>\n

Now, once you’ve broken your two-pack-a-day adverb habit, you can<\/em> take it a step further by avoiding those “with a…” phrases. I don’t know what they’re called in grammar books; prepositions? Maybe. Not all prepositional phrases are bad — most aren’t — but those ‘with a …’ phrases are really just a way of writing adverbs without writing adverbs. You’re cheating yourself.<\/p>\n

“What’s up?” he said, smiling as he spoke.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Better! Considerably less suckitude. More words. Win\/win.<\/p>\n

Maybe you could…<\/p>\n

“What’s up?” he said. He was smiling as he spoke; the particular smile I liked to imagine he saved just for me.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bam. Maybe not the great american novel, but exponentially better than “smilingly”.<\/p>\n

There’s your first dirty writing trick: No adverbs.<\/p>\n

Now get back to work.<\/p>\n

Have fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, in the comments, Chuck said: I usually aim for the middle ground on first drafts \u2014 I know it\u2019s not going to be perfect, but I aim for a solid B to B+ range. Hell, I\u2019m going to go through five drafts anyway \u2014 but if my first draft is littered … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “#NaNoWriMo: Dirty Trick #1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_import_markdown_pro_load_document_selector":0,"_import_markdown_pro_submit_text_textarea":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,42],"tags":[636],"class_list":["post-1845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musing","category-resources","category-writing","tag-nanowrimo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1845"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2170,"href":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845\/revisions\/2170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/doycetesterman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}