My first ever Tuesday Tips!!!

Not sure if I like the name...I may work on that :)

But anyway, I have decided to share my world of knowledge about publishing and writing. Okay, I don't so much have a "world" of knowledge..maybe just a bucketful...a small one... But I am going to share in hopes of helping my readers learn from my mistakes.

For my first week I decided to focus on something I did many many times in my first novel..and this was after I'd been through it a zillion times on my own. My editor had to correct it so many times...I though for sure she'd change her mind and give me the heave-ho.

Using words like thought, felt, saw, etc....

My debut, A Bitch Named Karma, is in first person, but I catch myself doing this with third person works too. Not sure why I did it. I guess I thought I needed to be as descriptive as possible. But the reader is in the MC's head...they don't need those extra words.


Example #1:

Wrong: She felt his hand touch her face.

Right: He touched her face.


Example #2:

Wrong: "That guy is hot," I thought to myself.

Right: That guy is hot.


Example #3

Wrong: I saw him take the cookie from the jar.

Right: He took the cookie from the jar.


These are very simplistic examples, but I think you can see what I mean. Nixing those extra words makes the sentences so much clearer, stronger, cleaner.

Thanks for stopping by my first ever tip post!!

If you have any ideas for future posts, please share!!! Or if you have questions about the digital publishing industry, please ask! I'd be more than happy to tackle a question in this weekly feature and share my experience.