Editorial crutches - things that you write that you don’t need to write
Here’s an interesting post at the Word Wise blog, talking about editorial crutches:
“Everyone has them - the overuse of “despite” to single out a point of difference, relying on “however” to get you through a sentence, the ubiquitous “meanwhile” that lets you slip effortlessly into a new paragraph. And each, used sparingly, is fine. But they are, in any case, editorial crutches, the things you depend on for support.”
Looking through a few blog posts and old reviews, I can see that I’m more than a little guilty of this myself. I seem to be especially for of “of course” and “however” - and probably a few others that aren’t quite so obvious (at least not to me as their writer).
I’m going to start watching out for these in novels now. But I wonder if they’re entirely a bad thing? If a writer has a ‘voice’ of their own (which all good writers are supposed to have, as far as I can tell), how much of that voice is a function of the words and phrases they instinctively use at certain points? And how much of it gets squashed by editors before we get a chance to see it? Pointless questions, perhaps, but it’s a Saturday and I’m in a pointless questions kind of mood.
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April 21st, 2007 at 11:16 pm
“However” and “Indeed” for me.
I just think in quite a structured manner. So I have Claim A opposed to Claim B and example C illustrating it. Naturally this because. A! However, B. Indeed, C.
April 22nd, 2007 at 2:52 am
Of course, Jonathan.
April 22nd, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I don’t see a problem with those words. ‘Of course’ is a little presumptuous though
‘Meanwhile’, your blog looks awesome on my new mobile. ‘If in fact’ gloating is rather tacky ‘it follows’ that I should cease.
April 22nd, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Guilty of many a “however” although I try to strip them out along with all the weaselly “perhaps may indicate” and other such comments where I try to hint that the author may have done something, without having the courage to say so outright.
Mind you, a lot of my spoken sentences suffer from “basically”, whereas “um” and “er” are, er, just punctuation.
April 23rd, 2007 at 10:54 pm
[...] In keeping with the spirit of the day, I’m going to put up a review I wrote for NYRSF. For bonus marks, see if you can spot my tics. [...]