Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Declaring war on adverbs

Today I finished the first draft of my submission for the Scotsman Orange Short Story Competition. First prize is a staggering £7,500. Closing date for entries is 10th March.

What I have to do now are the re-writes. First priority is to remove ALL adverbs. Then try and strengthen the verbs. After that flesh out the two main characters. Finally, pep up the dialogue.

Actually, I enjoy revision. When it goes well you can feel the story developing depth, the characters coming alive . I'll probably re-write ten or a dozen times in total.

It's good practice before I start my next novel which I plan to do at the end of March.

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