Nothing Unseemly About It
I've always been a direct person. I say what I mean. The first time I discovered this wasn't always so with others was when, actually, I turned down a date with a man I had gone out with twice. He was infatuated. I wasn't. I SO wasn't. By the second date he was envisioning an engagement. I was envisioning the end of the night. So when he asked me, the following week, why I "couldn't" go out on Saturday night, I said, "I don't want to." "Well, what are you doing? Do you have plans?" "No. I'll probably stay in with my grandma." "So you'd rather stay in with your grandmother than go out in Manhattan and have a good time with me." "Yes." "Most women make something up, like they have to wash their hair." "I don't make up excuses."
I wasn't being MEAN. But I didn't see any point in continuing to date someone because I was unable to say I wasn't interested. It also didn't strike me as honest to string someone along until he "got the hint."
However, when it comes to my writing, I have one "wishy-washy" tendency. The word "seem."
"It seemed like the room grew very cold."
"The crowd seemed to inhale as one."
Look, it either got cold or it didn't. They either breathed as one or they didn't. You can't play it both ways.
I get SO disgusted with this writer habit. I don't allow it when I edit other writers. But somehow, this awful habit creeps into my own work.
I understand that sometimes it's because, truly, the crowd CAN'T REALLY inhale as one. It does just "seem" as if. But in writing, it's fine to make the leap. To be decisive.
Editing last night, I found three "seems" in fifty pages. ARGH!
Tell me, if I take out all my "seems" does my writing become "unseemly"?
And do you have anything "seemingly" creeping into your writing?
I wasn't being MEAN. But I didn't see any point in continuing to date someone because I was unable to say I wasn't interested. It also didn't strike me as honest to string someone along until he "got the hint."
However, when it comes to my writing, I have one "wishy-washy" tendency. The word "seem."
"It seemed like the room grew very cold."
"The crowd seemed to inhale as one."
Look, it either got cold or it didn't. They either breathed as one or they didn't. You can't play it both ways.
I get SO disgusted with this writer habit. I don't allow it when I edit other writers. But somehow, this awful habit creeps into my own work.
I understand that sometimes it's because, truly, the crowd CAN'T REALLY inhale as one. It does just "seem" as if. But in writing, it's fine to make the leap. To be decisive.
Editing last night, I found three "seems" in fifty pages. ARGH!
Tell me, if I take out all my "seems" does my writing become "unseemly"?
And do you have anything "seemingly" creeping into your writing?
Labels: bad writing habits
posted by Erica Orloff at 8:23 AM
18 Comments:
I seem to have the same bad habit. (Ahem).
I'm sure there are others.
Mark:
LOL. At least we are kindred spirits.
E
I call it "Holden Caufield Syndrome," that wishy-washy voice with lots of seems and abouts and ...or somethings.
As in: It seemed like old Juggles the Clown was about the best juggler in the universe or something.
It seems like the cure for Holden Caufield Syndrome is to take about ten red pens or something and start drawing lines through a bunch of words. Or something.
Seems, usually, always, just, really, even - all those great words that can be struck down with impunity - usually.
I write questions and then proceed to answer them. Then go back later and removed 90% of the questions. Or I reword them to not be questions.
Jude:
In that case, though, it fits a teen's way of talking. Mine is just sloppiness.
E
Sarah:
I used to use questions. Now I realize I am just 'thinking aloud" as a writer when I do that and cut them.
Usually. ;-)
E
Erica:
I agree. That was the perfect voice for that book. It's rather infectious, though, for me anyway. That's what I was trying to get at.
For a while I found myself using the word "manage". Like: "She managed to get the door open." I think it was just a short cut rather than showing how she "managed" to get the door open. It's a word I look for now. Other than that, the over used words and other 'conveniences' change with each book. Or maybe they just seem to change.
Liz:
I think they change as we progress. I used to use more adverbs. Qualified things with "really." Etc.
E
Oh boy. I do a word search for "seem."
Also for "that" and "began."
I probably should search for "ing" too, but I gotta eat and sleep.
On a personal note (rather than writing, editing, and such), the best way to tell a guy you're not attracted to him is DIRECTLY and IMMEDIATELY. The slow, gradual "why doesn't he take the hint" way hurts like hell. Damn it hurts. It really, really hurts.
Not that I've experienced it personally, mind you.
Stephen:
See? I think I did the right thing. I MUCH preferred Grandma's company.
E
Erica, I love that about you. The direct approach is the route to go. I went on a date with a jerk-guy once long ago. We never made it to the third date. After hearing about how much his car cost, the clothes he was wearing, when he wanted to dance, when it was best to sit I got bored really fast. I was a disco queen! Couldn't turn him down quick enough the next time he called. Come to think of it, we made it to the second date cause he was much different on the first.
Okay, now that I've bored everyone to sleep, about the seem question you asked. :) I'm doing revisions and caught one of those buggers earlier. Seriously, I'd taken it out, put it back in, took it out. Breaking up is hard to do!
All the time. Tons. I go through periods where I delete all my bad habits completely. And then I'll go through periods where I'll remember my character is not a writer, LOL, and might use some of those "wrong" words.
But mostly I delete them. Let's see: just, seems, really, really, REALLY, and, that, and but.
Especially in blogging, but also in fiction, I put a ton of unnecessary words in. I don't often edit my blogging, but when I do, I can usually say the same sentence in half the words.
The leaner the stronger.
Direct approach - good for us, good for our characters?
I don't do hints. They go right over my head. If you really want me to know something, smack me upside the head with a 2x4. Please.
I hate the "you know what I mean" approach. If I did, I wouldn't be asking or sitting here looking very stupid.
Hi Ladonna:
Maybe we dated the same guy??
;-)
E
Hi Spy:
I don't edit my blog either. It's stream consciousness with my coffee.
I never plan it. Don't think about it before it. I open Blogger . . . and then my brain.
:-)
E
sarah:
LOL.
My problem is I am apt to "read" too much into people so they may THINK I am getting the hint--but for whatever reason, I am getting the WRONG hint.
E
I'm on probation - after being arrested by the Thought Balloon Police. I no longer commit that crime...or if I do, I delete before they come to get me!
WHEW!!!
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