An adverb nightmare…

Posted on 17 September 2007
Tags: Just Chat

Twice now I’ve encounter the same problem while writing a story. Thoroughly Mannerly Millicent was with Avalon Books for over two years before they bought the story. My growth as a writer in that two years was significant. I cringed as I read what I’d written in 2004 and proceeded to make changes which caused me no end of grief when my page count didn’t match what Avalon had.

Now it’s happening again, I had a story accepted for publication in late 2005; Waltz with a Lawman.

The edits arrived a couple of days ago and it I’m having a terrible time. I’d thought the story had gotten lost and planned to ask for its return.

My poor editor…how frustrating for her to deal with this. Adverbs abound everywhere, sometimes several per sentence! And I even knew not to use so many in ’05, but evidently I spaced out and did it anyway. Terribly. Continually. Effortlessly. Unabashedly. Stupidly.

There are holes in the plot, things that plain don’t make sense, characters that are acting weird and I’m pulling my hair out. To make matters worse, this isn’t a short story. It’s an 87K western and borderline erotic…or not…I’m not sure.

I have two stories due this month and this is keeping me from getting the second one done. Grrrrr….

Brit