An oft-published writer buddy (primarily fantasy) recently posted this on FaceBook. Feel free to cuss, discuss, and/or add your own advice.
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Final final manuscript revision before printing and submitting to my agent (now) always involves the same procedure:
delete 95% of adverbs and strengthen the verbs instead.
delete 95% of: was, all, some, that, quite, rather, then, etc;
delete 90% of dialogue tags in 2-person conversations and replace with action beats.
This process usually drops (no lie) 7-8k from my final word count and should make my personal grammar Nazi *cough, cough* much happier.
It happened at a church summer camp so it must be true, right? ;)
OF WAR, AND PEACE, AND MARY BETH: my contest winner, honest
For Whom the Good Tolls an 'RR' and it's short, no kidding[/url]
OF WAR, AND PEACE, AND MARY BETH: my contest winner, honest
For Whom the Good Tolls an 'RR' and it's short, no kidding[/url]