7/18/13

The Things I Learned While Almost Done

Almost done, almost done, almost done, you have no idea how close I am.

I am about to split a couple of lengthened chapters, and then I am done. That is how close I am.

Yesterday and today consisted of a bunch of fine-tuning. Here are a couple of things I learned or re-learned:
  • In America, it's toward, backward, and forward. There is no need to add an 's' on the end.
  • It's onto when you can add a mental "up" before it. It's on to when you can't.
  • Examine your bad words. Are they necessary? Are they really? Are they really, really, really? Are you sure you can't put anything else there that gets the point across just as well? Yes. Well, okay then, keep it.
  • If you're writing a bare-bones thriller novel in first-person present-tense and your character narrates that she thinks something, you can delete the fact that she thinks it. She's writing the book. Obviously, she thinks it.
  • There is a lot of wordplay available for the phrase "those who trespass". Especially if you're writing a dark, guilt-ridden novel.
Okay, that last one probably doesn't apply to anyone else.

I'm so close!!!!!! I would dance around right now but...I'm blogging. Now I have to format the thing for Kindle. Now I have to think about marketing. Fun, fun, fun. :)

What about you? Any quick tips you learned from your writing this week?

2 comments:

Andrea Mack said...

It's so exciting to be almost finished!

This week I'm learned to look for sneaky repetitions (does the MC really need to the same problem with three different characters?)

Melody said...

Haha, oh those repetitions! They sneak up on me, too. In one of my books, I even had the poor girl explaining TWICE to the SAME PERSON that she wasn't an orphan. And he was surprised both times. :)