Recently, I had the pleasure of listening to Robert Rotenberg, a Toronto criminal lawyer and author who has been called “The Canadian John Grisham,” though he tells me he’d prefer to be compared to Scott Turow…but I digress.
One of the things Robert (Bobby to his friends) recommended was to do a “ly” space search once you’ve finished the first draft of your manuscript.
The rationale is that authors tend to “pad” the word count with adverbs like really, quickly, actually etc. It’s also an indication that the verb used could be stronger. For example, “really big,” could be replaced with “enormous,” a more powerful word.
Now, I found that interesting and decided to do the the ly space check on my current Work-in-Progress (approx. 32,000 words) and was absolutely (oops, there’s one) astounded at the number of times I’d used a word ending in ly that wasn’t necessary OR where the verb needed some punching up.
In fact, in this last sentence, it would have been better to say “flabbergasted” vs. “absolutely astounded.”
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
Reblogged this on OPENED HERE >> https:/BOOKS.ESLARN-NET.DE.
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Thank you for reblogging
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🙂🙂
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You also need to run ‘ly,’ and ‘ly.’ or you miss those at the end of phrases and sentences.
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Good point, Jemima! Had not thought of that.
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I’ve updated the post to include ly, and ly.
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Reblogged this on Kim's Musings.
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Thanks Kim!
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Thanks for sharing this, Chris. I’ve had lots of great feedback on this post. I’d love to hear other suggestions, too, as this will be a regular column, at least for the foreseeable future!
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Welcome, Judy 🤗
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