tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013500054211986150.post1347740995440076721..comments2023-06-20T05:32:36.093-07:00Comments on The Write Place: Did You Really Just Say That- AGAIN?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06120772561989956243noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013500054211986150.post-60212030226659910312014-03-10T12:57:50.473-07:002014-03-10T12:57:50.473-07:00Carlton, just goes to show that great minds think ...Carlton, just goes to show that great minds think alike :D I definitely agree with you that you have really only succeeded as an author when you have connected with your reader emotionally and intellectually. Trimming the fat is the surest way to get rid of the distractions and completely draw your reader in. This isn't always an easy thing to do. Our stories make perfect sense to us, and we are already emotionally invested in it, so seeing this fat can sometimes be a problem. One great piece of advice I got some time back was: when you think your story is ready to publish, walk away from it for as much as a month, then go back and read it slowly. That fat will be that much easier to see then. Most authors are anxious to publish, though, and this is a step they very often simply skip.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06120772561989956243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013500054211986150.post-66851691763533449992014-03-09T09:44:50.580-07:002014-03-09T09:44:50.580-07:00Chameleon - "Trim the fat." What great a...Chameleon - "Trim the fat." What great advice. You are echoing the words of Stephen King in his book, On Writing. I highly recommend Mr. King's very readable and short book on writing to any author who has not yet discovered it. In it, he encourages authors to do many things, and two of them strike me as relevant to your post: 1) get rid of words that are not really part of the story; and 2) avoid the use of adverbs. I took Mr. King's advice to mean: if a word or a phrase or a sentence or a paragraph does not add to your story, take it out. To borrow again from Mr. King, it seems to me that our job as authors is to connect with the reader, in a form of telepathy: we are indeed seeking to put our thoughts into the mind of someone else, the reader. It's both an intellectual and an emotional experience. In my view, the better we are at ridding our stories of intellectual and emotional distractions (words and thoughts that really don't need to be there), the better we will be at focusing the reader's mind on the story she/he really wants to read.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01230223536827237988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013500054211986150.post-82122370235488491182014-03-07T17:46:18.888-08:002014-03-07T17:46:18.888-08:00LOL, Nope, wasn't yours, Kate :) Wasn't an...LOL, Nope, wasn't yours, Kate :) Wasn't any BRD book, thankfully :)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06120772561989956243noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013500054211986150.post-40573626601808339442014-03-07T11:38:20.601-08:002014-03-07T11:38:20.601-08:00I thought that was funny about Dan the valet, unti...I thought that was funny about Dan the valet, until I read the bit about the book you read recently and then I panicked and thought, 'oh no, I hope that wasn't mine.'Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10746680433890159371noreply@blogger.com