Writing Tips: What I’ve learned: -ly adjectives

Even though I have released seven books on the Kindle to date, and I’ve written countless more stories that will never see the light of day, I’m still learning about writing. Writing is a never ending process because you never stop learning. Even if one has all the technical and grammar rules mastered there’s always more to learn about characterization and plotting the plot.

Recently I learned the lie of -ly adjectives. Bluntly put, when writing a book about 75% of -ly adjectives/words are unnecessary. What the heck is a -ly adjective? Exactly what it sounds like, an adjective that ends with ly. Here are a few examples: Quietly, quickly, softly, gently, angrily, sadly, and jumpily. Those sound like words that are fantastic and need to be included, right? Wrong! These -ly adjectives usually occur when paired with a verb, in example: quietly whispered and quickly ran.

Think about quietly whispered for a moment. Is it really necessary to say you quietly whispered? Wouldn’t it automatically be assumed you’re quiet because otherwise you wouldn’t be whispering? The same goes for quickly ran, if you’re running wouldn’t it be obvious that you’re being quick about it? The -ly adjectives are unnecessary because the verb already gives you an idea about the action and how it should be played out.

As a side note suddenly is a ly word that gets over used a lot. “Suddenly the bear walked out of the woods.” It describes that the bear arrived all of a sudden, which is OK. However, the sentence would be a lot more remarkable if you used a stronger verb to describe that instead of the word suddenly.

Please note that I said about 75% of the -ly adjectives/words are unnecessary. You’re going to run into -ly words that are necessary. The idea behind this writing trick is that you watch for words that aren’t needed because the verb already describes it accurately. Some words, like accurately for instance, are going to be necessary because they change the idea of the verb. (ie: Accurately shot as opposed to inaccurately shot)

If you’re writing and you find you have a lot of -ly words that are necessary don’t stress out about it. I have often discovered that people make up a lot of writing rules. There are so many rules, in fact, that they often cancel each other out. Personally, I learned that it’s best to take these writing “rules” as tips, so I watch for them but I also don’t hesitate to break them.

Writing Tips: How I Plot

Question: So, K.M., why have you been totally ruining your usual blog schedule and missing updates all together?

Answer: Ahaha I REGRET NOTHING!

Actually I do have a good explanation for once. You know how I said Enthroned was finished, and I just needed to edit it? Apparently Enthroned did not agree with that statement. These past three days I’ve added about four scenes of all new content, which means the editing process is taking much longer than I estimated.

Since I don’t really have any news to talk about, besides the fact that Enthroned is being an attention hogger, I thought I would take today to answer a common writer question.

Question: Are you the kind of writer who plans everything out, or do you fly by the seat of your pants and write as you go?

Answer: I’m a mixture of the two.

If I’m doing a historical novel then I have to do some research ahead of time, otherwise the story will end up down right shameful. With historical series, like Robyn Hood and King Arthur and her Knights, it is especially important to plan and plot out ahead of time because of all the historical legends and ballads I use. For instance, I can’t introduce a quest in King Arthur and Her Knights that Gawain takes part in if Gawain isn’t in the book yet.

With futuristic books or fantasy books I have the tendency to–in the beginning–make things up as I go along. This model works out great if the story isn’t super complex. Red Rope of Fate is a perfect example. I had a rough idea of the sequence of events I wanted, and I knew some of the cultural differences between elves and humans, but that was it. I didn’t design any of my characters out ahead of time, and I didn’t have any written notes so everything still had to be hashed out as I wrote. Same idea for Princess Ahira.

This model does not work with books that have special/significant magical/social/cultural/economic systems. For instance I plotted for weeks before I wrote Life Reader, and in the end my original work was still so horrid I rewrote the book 3 times. If you’re going for a complex story and you don’t take the time to plan things out ahead of time two things will happen: 1) You’re going to forget all the intricacies you’re writing because you don’t have notes about it so your book will be riddled with errors and things that don’t make sense or 2) You will have to spend so much time editing and rewriting that the little time you saved by not plotting out ahead of time is squandered in the editing process. The one upside to the fly by the seat of your pants model is that if you’re aware you’re going to have to do revisions you won’t be opposed to flipping the book on its head and doing major revisions to the plot and setting.

I’m not saying a person absolutely must plan out a book ahead of time–with a lot of my books I launch into the first 20 pages and then go back and make notes and plot everything out after I get a feel for the characters–but it is also worth noticing that the big time authors all plan/research ahead of time. (Example? J.K. Rowling.)

Book Research: This Could Backfire

Whenever I start a new book I always research a couple of topics that I present in the book. Don’t get me wrong–I’m not the type to research so deeply that I’ll get everything write and double check I have named every piece of clothing correctly and got every street name right, but I do think embedding the truth into a work of fiction is very important for setting.

For example, before writing My Life At the MBRC–which revolves around Chicago–I did an extended tour of the city with a close friend of mine. The street names, restaurant locations, museum hours, and bus schedule are all real and based on the maps/schedules I found in 2009. For the two-parter Robyn Hood series I read the traditional ballads about Robyn Hood and some of the earliest fiction books written about him. (All the ballads except for the one Dan the Musician sings are all real Robyn Hood songs.) I also took an archery class so I had a rough  idea of the shooting process. Additionally, most of my information on King Richard is historically accurate. All of the information I present in his capture and rescue (Including the fact that his mother hawked the Crown Jewels to free him) is real.

OK, OK, basic research  is important for me, you get it! Why does that matter? Because I think it’s about to backfire on me. The heroine of one of my newest projects that I’m prepping for loves cooking and baking. Because I want to be able to properly express her what happens as she cooks I’ve been cooking too. Just recently I’ve made: Homemade bread, Creme Brulee, chocolate iced coffee (I’m addicted to this now), pumpkin soup, chocolate covered coffee beans, homemade chocolate, cookies and cream fudge, I really could go on but I’m starting to feel ashamed.

The problem here is that I have a major lack of self control, and fudge and creme brulee aren’t exactly light in the calorie area. I know this because my jeans are fitting distinctly tighter. I suppose I could balance it out by making my next heroine a fitness nut, but I feel like I need a lung transplant if I run for more than three minutes so I do not see that happening. Hopefully I will be able to tame  it down soon, but in the mean time my pants will have to suffer.