Work Room - Week 6, Part 2

[clauderainsrm]

I promised you a Mentor, and here she is! :)

I was really hoping to get tigrkittn involved somehow with this season, but she's been so busy lately that it was going to be tough. I was really happy when she said she would be able to Mentor you guys this week

Comments

From a guy whose job involves copy-editing

[beldar]

...and past 11th-placer in Idol

[eeyore_grrl]

I use "and" in my poetry in a repetitive manner. A lot. I'm trying to move away from that.

[lilmissmagic71]

Hello, my name is Misty, and I abuse and occasionally misuse the poor ellipsis.

[garnigal]

Me too! I love ellipsis...

[tigrkittn]

Another one of my personal faves! Although I recently read something where the ellipsis was being used where an em dash belonged and the page looked like it was made of swiss cheese... <-- just had to!

[tigrkittn]

The book I'm working on right now has about 450 pages and almost 200 ellipses. That could be a little too much love... what do you think??

[rswndrlst]

I heard Stephanie Meyer used the word chagrined a lot but I never readTwilight.

I tend to catch words and phrases that authors repeat in the same work/series and it takes me out of the story

I just finished rotting my brain withreading a smexy romance where the characters were constantly trying to "swallow around a lump in their throat/dry throat," I was reading on a kindle so I finally did a search and the phrase was used 23 times!

In my own work suddenlyis a word I'm often editing out, also: then, just, very

I also lurv run on sentences so I use anda lot and have a thing for semi colons.

[tigrkittn]

Semicolons are vastly underappreciated, mostly because so many people aren't sure quite what they are for.

[ellison]

I read the entire Twilight series because friends told me, "It gets so much better, it's so worth it, just stick with it!"

I didn't notice chagrined, but OMG, every other page, someone "glowered" at someone else. "He glowered." "She glowered." "...he said, glowering." "He narrowed his eyes and glowered."

OMG JUST STOP. It was horrible. And for the record, the series did not get better, nor was it "worth it." I carry a lot of disdain for her and the series, honestly.

As for my own writing, I know I repeat myself too often, use "and" a lot, and use passive voice too often. I have been learning to look for those things and fix them up. I don't want my writing to be too repetitive or boring.

[roina_arwen]

One of my friends has a horrible time overusing the word "seriously," as in "She seriously needed to do X."

[kathrynrose]

I am a comma whore. I know it and I do it anyway. :P

[tigrkittn]

If I remembered how to post images I'd respond to this with the "Comma, Oxford comma, Shatner comma, Walken commma" graphic. I've been away from LJ too long!

[kathrynrose]

LOL, it's ok. I've seen it enough to grin at the reference. :)