My word count today has consisted of looking for all the gesture crutches I've used in my manuscript. My characters are all nodding, smiling idiots. I can't believe how many times I've got them nodding and smiling!
So, I've been doing a bit of revising. After I looked over Jordan McCollum's Fixes for Gesture Crutches and the Emotion Thesaurus, I dug in and started fixing. Oy. It's taken a lot longer than I thought, but so far, I've added about 500 words to the manuscript.
Do you use a lot of gesture crutches? What's your strategy for getting rid of the grinny Gus in a manuscript who nods a lot?
How did you do this week?
I'm an award-winning romantic suspense novelist, but in my free time I love to review books and my fave TV shows, as well as pass along great book deals, and eat Canadian chocolate---not necessarily in that order.
3 comments:
I wrote 3,361 words this week. I didn't realize I was able to write that much. I'm happily surprised!
I wouldn't be too hard on yourself with those "gesture crutches'. The readers need direction, and seeing the characters smiling is a good thing! Now, if you had said, "she smiled" three times in a row, in the same paragraph, then it would be obvious, and then too much--I'd then agree.
LOL! I think I need that thesaurus. I’m ashamed to admit that I may have quite a few nodding, smiling idiots in my MS as well. I’ve been reading a lot of Shannon Hale lately though, so I’m hoping some of her magical imagery skills might somehow seep into my brain by osmosis...
During revisions, I try to visualize and/or act out how the character reacts and then describe it. Problem is, smiles and nods are often what I see them doing. A second redo can often fix that.
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