Hey Folks,
Well, one of my novels is in a new bundle from BundleRabbit: Cosmic Clashes. So that makes eight active bundles. (grin) You can see all of the bundles that contain my work at http://harveystanbrough.com/bundles/.
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Worked through the day yesterday and finished the copyedit. Looking very forward to getting back full-time to my own WIP today.
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My first reader is excellent. Chief (to me) among her finds were places where my character “secreted himself” instead of simply “hid.” (grin)
In every case, those were places where I allowed the language to take precedence over the story. I call it “the poet’s curse.” In retrospect, “secreted himself” just sounded so cool, and maybe a bit haughty, a bit important.
But for her, an avid reader, it evoked images of secretions and things like snails and slime and… well, you get the point.
And really, all the character did was hide. So yeah, I made those changes and several others she recommended. A good first reader really is gold.
Allowing language to intervene in their writing is also one of the reasons folks attempt to improve over “said” as a tag line verb. (Is that a smooth transition, or what?) (grin)
And they end up with tag lines like
“Let’s go down to the lake,” she sentenced.
or “I can’t take it anymore!” he ejaculated.
Yeah. Not kidding.
So I was going to come back tomorrow with a long post. The main part of it would be a be-all-end-all topic on tag line verbs and the difference between tag lines and brief descriptive narratives.
But the topic alone is just under 1100 words, and thus far I’ve compiled a list of over 250 verbs that folks use erroneously in tag lines. So instead, I decided to save the whole thing as a PDF document and make it available (free) on my website.
I strongly recommend you download it and read it, especially if you believe you don’t have a problem with tag lines.
To get your free copy, click http://harveystanbrough.com/downloads/, then click on Not Tag Line Verbs.
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Finally came up with titles for my previous novel and my WIP. They’re in the same series (Nick Spalding).
In Jack Higgins’ novel Night Judgement at Sinos, I encountered this excellent passage:
“It was a strange kind of existence. A sort of limbo between old endings and new beginnings.”
So the title of my WIP (chronologically the first book in the series) is Old Endings. And the title of the one I just finished (second in the series) is New Beginnings.
At least for now. (grin)
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To the Hovel at around 9. Had three good sessions with breaks by 12:30, then a long break for lunch and a little Andy Griffith Show.
Back to the Hovel for a final session at 2. Good day today.
Of Interest
There are some great comments on Dean’s “A Fun Harlan Story.” You can read them at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/a-fun-harlan-story/#comments. I even saved this one in a few categories on my Writer Resources page.
See “Two Sayings On My Office Wall” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/two-sayings-on-my-office-wall/.
See “Does Your Story Have a Solid Foundation?” at https://killzoneblog.com/2018/08/does-your-story-have-a-solid-foundation.html.
See “Free Fiction Monday: My Real Cousin Ruby” at https://kriswrites.com/2018/08/27/free-fiction-monday-my-real-cousin-ruby-2/.
Talk with you again soon.
Fiction Words: 3882
Nonfiction Words: 550 (Journal)
So total words for the day: 4432
Writing of Old Endings (Nick Spalding 1)
Brought forward…… 17778 words
Day 1…… 1449 words. Total words to date…… 19227
Day 2…… 1611 words. Total words to date…… 20838
Day 3…… 3169 words. Total words to date…… 24007
Day 4…… 3077 words. Total words to date…… 27084
Day 5…… 2146 words. Total words to date…… 29230
Day 6…… 3882 words. Total words to date…… 33112
Total fiction words for the month……… 51231
Total fiction words for the year………… 299528
Total nonfiction words for the month… 173100
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 115596
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 414874
Calendar Year 2018 Novels to Date………………………… 6
Calenday Year 2018 Novellas to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2018 Short Stories to Date……… 11
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)………………………………………… 32
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)……………………………………… 6
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………………… 193