Friday 9 December 2011

As I write, joyfully...common pitfalls in my writing

It's been a few weeks since my last post, because I met an agent at the RNA Winter Party who asked me to send her 'something' from my new novel. Consequently, I've been tidying up my first three chapters of my current novel and not writing new blogs. I'm not holding my breath, but it would be fantastic to get some kind of professional feedback.
Said three chapters now off in the post, I wanted to write something about adverbs and the use of 'as'.

I've mentioned it before, I'm notorious for putting in adverbs after 'she said', 'he said'. I think it probably comes from school, where I was taught never to use the word 'said', but rather 'whispered', 'shouted', 'announced'...everything that is condemned as bad writing when you reach adulthood. So, I now search through my writing for 'ly', and am finding that I'm increasingly getting better at avoiding them.

A new problem I've just learnt about is the use of 'as'. I use it a lot, and that is apparently a sign of an inept writer. *Sigh*

'As' should apparently not be used to mean 'when', 'while', 'because' or 'at the same time'.

I have used 'as' to mean all of these things. Hence, I shall add it to my list of things to avoid doing.