Tips for Writers by Amber Polo Relaxation Writing and Romance

Editing Using MSWord’s “Find and Replace”

Pesky words creep into your writing and do no good—other than add to a manuscript’s
word count, take up space, and keep sentences weak. I search for those words using
MSWord’s “Find and Replace,” then decide if deletion is a word's highest and best fate.

The more I use this editing method, the more I find I use my personal filler words less and
don’t have to take out as many. Editing dialog is different because certain words are part
of a character’s personality.

Jeannie Eddy in “Fixing Your Fiction: Being Your Own Best Editor” (Romance Writers
Report, August, 2007) reminds writers removing words tightens fiction. Her article made
me think about my personal unnecessary word list I use “Find and Replace” to eliminate.

Here’s my List. Send me your “words” and I’ll add them to the list.

that	almost	even	really	seem
then finally suddenly now at last	in over out up down	small big many	feel felt feeling	was is be are
probably certainly	very just	must could	thing it	which
-ing	-ly	there

Writing Tips

Too Busy Writing to Read? by Amber Polo

Was your interest in books first sparked by stories read aloud? Most writers started out
as listeners, became voracious readers, and now never have enough time to read. Recapture
the original experience with audiobooks.

Listening to other writers increases appreciation of their craft, moods, and settings, and
helps you hear their characters’ voices. Be transported into a story without printed words
to slow your brain.

Unabridged books give you all the author’s words, yet abridged versions, skillfully cut,
keep the flavor and integrity of the original—a travesty in some opinions. As a writer,
notice how an editor keeps the plot, characters, and style while eliminating as much as two-
thirds of the words.

You’d think authors would be their own best reader, but often a skilled narrator better
fits the story. Examples of voices that enhance books:

•        “Memoirs of a Geisha” with Bernadette Dunne’s Japanese accented voice
•        Sandra Brown’s “Envy” read in Victor Slezak’s southern accents.
•        Brad Pitt reading Cormac McCarthy’s “All the Pretty Horses”
•        Sissy Spacek’s delightful new reading of “To Kill a Mockingbird”
•        Geraldine James’ narration of Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” series
•        Maeve Binchy’s stories in “The Return Journey” narrated by Fionnula Flanagan.
•        Jennifer Cruise & Bob Mayer’s “Don’t Look Down,” has a narrator for each voice

Find time to enjoy old friends or try a new author or a new genre. Read while you walk or
change a boring commute, a doctor’s office wait, or a long trip from dread to anticipation.
Turn cooking and cleaning into “reading” time.

Buy, borrow, download, or rent audiobooks as cassettes, CDs, MP3 CDs, or computer
downloads. Most public libraries have great selections. Look for unabridged or well-
abridged nonfiction to help in your research.

Digital downloads (www.audible.com has a great selection) let you to listen on your
computer or transfer files to your ipod or MP3 player. Adapters plug into your car audio
system. Load CDs into iTunes and listen whenever you are ready.

Interested in becoming an audiobook author? Publishers publish audio editions close to
the print version release date or ‘originals’ in audio format. Audio Publishers Association
has a directory of publishers, www.audiopub.org. As audiobook listening increases, some
also start out as audio, gain popularity, and then become print titles.

You, too, could turn from a bookworm to a tapeworm as David Sedaris suggests in his “The
Tapeworm Is In” from “Me Talk Pretty One Day.”

Amber Polo: Relaxation,
Writing & Romance