Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Overused Word--A Plague of THATS

I am bogged down with the preliminary edits of Daddy Wanted and working away until I am bleary eyed every night.

I don't mind. I want my book to the be best it can be. The passage below needed to be fixed.


So I studied it, switched words around, eliminated the plague of THATS and now it looks like this:


I hope the editor will find it satisfactory, but it is definitely better than it was.








7 comments:

Unknown said...

Much better the second time around...

Dottie :)

Penelope Marzec said...

Dottie,

Thanks. It took a lot of concentration. :^)

MarkD60 said...

That's a lot better. That's good that you took all the thats out of that paragraph. That makes that that much easier to read.

ssddri 262

Penelope Marzec said...

Mark,

That is so nice of you to leave that complimentary remark. :^)

Lillie Ammann said...

This is so funny. I'm publishing a small book of favorite memories of my late husband, gathered from friends and family. I had an editor friend read it, and she found two mistakes and a plague of thats!

Penelope Marzec said...

Lillie,

LOL. Thanks for letting me know I'm not the only writer with an infestation of thats. I need an exterminator! :^)

Jude Mason said...

Hi Lily,

I've never posted to your blog before, but your subject line grabbed me and here I am. The word 'that' is so overused and misused so much it drives me crazy sometimes. Your second attempt at the rewrite was well worth the time it took. A suggestion, the next edit you receive, do a search of the MS for problem words, like THAT and see how many times it's used. You might be surprised. Other words to look for: and, then, any LY word, suddenly. You may also find you have what I call 'crutch words' words you lean on when you can't think of a better one.

Uh, I'm giving a lecture here. Sorry, but I tend to feel a tad passionate about helping those who ask or work hard at their craft. Good luck with your book!