Rotten Writing

Flaws. Fiction: rotten writing, no story. Nonfiction: rotten writing, no logic. No kidding, in essence, these are the most frequent problems in documents submitted for editing or evaluation.

The works are usually beginning writers' first attempts for serious publishing. Without guidance, most of them stumble into the same writing potholes. I can almost predict what I will see from knowing those few facts about a writer and a piece of writing:

weak verbs
nothing nouns
adverb crutches
repetitions
cliches
painful punctuation

Colorless, flabby writing is, "the dog drank the water noisily." Better: "the poodle slurped from a stagnant puddle." Repeated words are understandable. Repeated sentence construction is (for one example) starting most sentences with an introductory clause: "Although she hated seeing herself in the mirror, ..." "When Dick tried to stick his nose into the couple's business to gather more tidbits of gossip with which to titillate the crowd at the bar, ..." (also cliché, and that sentence is going to travel way too far before encountering a needed period). Using the same structure for most sentences produces a sing-song, hypnotic text. Do you want to put your readers to sleep?

A contemporary problem more editors are reporting: needlessly using "that" within sentences. Take that out and listen for the writing to flow as smoothly. "Listen" indicates reading out loud. It is also a good method for checking punctuation, unless you have the annoying speech habit of ending most sentences in a questioning pitch lift. Punctuate where you pause. Punctuation marks in ascending order of pause length: comma, semicolon, colon, end mark (period, question mark or exclamation point.) The British don't call the period a "full stop" for no good reason!

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