Smiles
When I write, I have some problem words that I repeat. I use them a lot because they're easy, and honestly, I don't realize how much I use them. When I edit on my own, I still don't see how much I use them.
The website I'm on to get critiques, Scribophile, has been so helpful. I'm in a special group on the website where I'm placed in a small group of seven people and we all critique one chapter a week of each other's work. So I post one chapter and get six critiques from my groupmates each week. It's really wonderful and has helped me immeasurably.
One of the consistent things people have said is that my characters smile a lot. One person said a few days ago that they smile so much, it gets distracting for him. All he sees are the smiles. That made me realize I really need to work on the smiles.
I took a chapter and went through to highlight all the smiles and grins in the chapter. I highlighted them all in yellow and then looked through the chapter. Holy cow! There were sometimes ten highlighted words on a page! So many smiles and grins. No wonder the guy critiquing my work was distracted!
So, I'm making my way through the chapters I've already posted on the website, removing as many of the smiles and grins as I can and replacing them using an emotion thesaurus to find other actions that show the same emotions. It's been hard, but rewarding.
The website I'm on to get critiques, Scribophile, has been so helpful. I'm in a special group on the website where I'm placed in a small group of seven people and we all critique one chapter a week of each other's work. So I post one chapter and get six critiques from my groupmates each week. It's really wonderful and has helped me immeasurably.
One of the consistent things people have said is that my characters smile a lot. One person said a few days ago that they smile so much, it gets distracting for him. All he sees are the smiles. That made me realize I really need to work on the smiles.
I took a chapter and went through to highlight all the smiles and grins in the chapter. I highlighted them all in yellow and then looked through the chapter. Holy cow! There were sometimes ten highlighted words on a page! So many smiles and grins. No wonder the guy critiquing my work was distracted!
So, I'm making my way through the chapters I've already posted on the website, removing as many of the smiles and grins as I can and replacing them using an emotion thesaurus to find other actions that show the same emotions. It's been hard, but rewarding.
Photo Credit: nalinratphi via freedigitalphotos.net
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