Part Two of Literary Liposuction deals with Adverbs and Prepositional Phrases - those things that worm their way into your work in the first draft.
ADVERBS
Ah yes, the dreaded, much aligned adverb. Think of it like a trip to the gynecologist: once in a while it’s necessary, but not every day. One of the worst thing about adverbs is that they make for lazy writing. Examples:
Jane quickly ran to the car. Boring! How about: Jane raced to the car. Better, right? More vivid. Or maybe she jogged. Or scampered. Ran doesn’t tell me her mood. Scampered says she’s happy. Scrambled might imply panic. Staggered might mean she’s had a few too many. Use your verbs wisely. And leave the adverbs out of it! Tight writing uses vivid verbs and fewer adverbs.
Take out the qualifiers where you can, too. Words like: just, very, some, etc. And do I need to mention the dreaded “that”? Get rid of it when it’s not necessary. Keep it when it is.
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
Prepositional phrases can really drag a sentence out. Fortunately, most of them are pretty easy to trim. For example:
Jane leaned against the door of the car that was parked in the driveway, her fingers strumming on the hood of the vehicle.
OR
Jane leaned against the car door, her fingers strumming the hood. (If we don’t already know the car’s in the driveway then maybe that info isn’t important.) Look how succinct!
