![]() Still, we must kill our darlings, no matter how much it stings. It’s not easy to delete a full page or an entire scene or chapter. Looking for more words that are often overused? Download this Editing Help: Crutch Words Checklist. Rewrite: For hours I gazed at the painting and the eyes never wavered. Original: I had gazed at the painting for hours and the eyes didn’t move. Also, if it’s clear the action is in the past, it can often be omitted. Twice is repetitive and clutters the writing. As a guide, used once in a sentence puts the action in past tense. Too many “had” words give the reader the impression the action took place prior to the main storyline. Rewrite: The most caring man I’d ever met moved out of state. Original: He moved out of state, but I miss him. Can you combine them into one sentence without losing the meaning? Rewrite: When he died, my soul shattered.Īlso search for places where “but” is used to connect two sentences. I’m not saying we should never use “and” or “but” to start a sentence, though editors might disagree. The way to determine if “of” is needed is by reading the sentence with and without it. Rewrite: When he neared, my skin tingled. Rewrite: When she severed their relationship, his heart stalled. Sometimes killing your darlings means combining/rewording sentences rather than merely removing filler. The only exception is if it’s used with purpose, like as a character cue word. Rewrite: An enormous dude with linebacker shoulders glared at me in the coffee line.Ĭonfession? I use “so” all the time online, but that doesn’t mean I leave the filler in my work. Original: So, this huge guy glared at me in the coffee line. Any time we tell the reader things like “I thought” or “He knew” or “She felt” or “I believe” we slip out of deep POV. “Believe” in this context is a telling word. Did you catch it?įinal Rewrite: All writers kill their darlings. The original and rewrite have a second darling. Rewrite: I believe all writers kill their darlings. Original: I believe that all writers kill their darlings. ![]() This darling litters many first drafts, but it can often be killed without any harm to the sentence. This darling should almost always be murdered. One of the first places to look is at filler words. If you can cut the word/sentence/paragraph/page/scene without disrupting the story, it’s a darling. If you have a scene that’s your best writing ever but it feels out-of-place, like it belongs in a different book, it’s a darling. If your beta readers are confused by it, but the thought of losing it shreds your soul, it’s a darling. This is a suspenseful, provocative novel about the sexual harassment that still runs rampant in academia - and the lengths those in power will go to cover it up.If you’re desperately in love with a word/sentence/paragraph/page/scene, but you keep fighting with it to make it work, it’s a darling. When another murder occurs, Connor must clear his name by unraveling the horrifying secrets buried in his student’s manuscript. ![]() Soon Connor discovers the crime is part of a disturbing scandal on campus and faces an impossible dilemma - admit he didn’t write the book and lose his job or keep up the lie and risk everything. ![]() And then she appears on his doorstep, alive and well, threatening to expose him.Ĭonnor’s problems escalate when the police insist details in the novel implicate him in an unsolved murder from two years ago. There’s just one problem: Connor didn’t write the book. Īfter years of struggling to write following the deaths of his wife and son, English professor Connor Nye publishes his first novel, a thriller about the murder of a young woman. When a student disappears and is presumed dead, her professor passes off her manuscript as his own - only to find out it implicates him in an unsolved murder in this new thriller from the USA Today best-selling author of The Request. "Sounds like Wonder Boys times Patricia Highsmith. "Fans of Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot may want to check this one out." ( Publishers Weekly ) A Most Anticipated Summer Read by SheReads * Motherly * Palm Beach Daily News * Frolic * Crime Reads and more! ![]()
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