Friday, April 29, 2011

If I knew then what I know now

Ten things I wish I knew two years ago:
  1. adverbs are not my friends
  2. the passive tense is...passive
  3. present participles are like salt, they add flavor when used sparingly
  4. grammar and spelling count
  5. my crutch words include 'that' and 'could' - I used Wordle to identify them
  6. my characters smile too much
  7. I have a strange obsession with eyes - why not noses or fingers or ears?
  8. there's always a better verb
  9. there's more to POV than meets the eye (see item 7)
  10. 'he said' and 'she asked' disappear - unlike 'he opined' and 'she queried' or 'he remarked' and 'she inquired'

4 comments:

  1. Hey, Julie!
    Came across one of your comments on the Intern's blog. Always nice to find close neighbors who share a love of writing. Mind if I jump on the wagon?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Please do! And where in the Land of Ahhs (I always thoughts that license plate was silly) do you live?

    Also, good luck on the conference.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ha! Agreed. I live in Olathe, which you may remember as the land of car salesmen wearing gosh-awful wardrobes on their commercials, screaming "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhlatheeeeeeeeee." What WAS the name of that guy? Fifty-year old memory fails me here.

    Thank-you. Looking forward to learning a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sonny Hill? Not quite as memorable as Boots Williams and Uncle Billy at that Suuwinging Red Bridge exit. I always wondered who would buy a car from a man wearing a barrel.

    ReplyDelete