Editing and Letter-writing

I just read an article about editing to get rid of non-essentials. Some I knew and regularly adhere to; another I need to work on.

Adverbs are taboo to me. I have learned to let descriptive words and verbs take their place. For instance: Sarah's whole face drooped. "Do I have to go?' she asked instead of Sarah asked glumly, "Do I have to go?"

I also try to leave out the parts that I know I wouldn't read if I were the reader and not the author. Sometimes whole passages have to go. After all, if they don't drive the story forward what use are they?

One thing I never gave much thought to was overuse of forms of "to be." Sarah was on top of the table. They were going to the store. I'm going to look through my work and see if I overuse those words> if so, out they go!!

I wrote a letter to the editor and saw it in print yesterday. I was so incensed by a columnist's tongue-in-cheek portrayal of Sarah Palin, ridiculing the names of her children, the fact that she breast fed her children and other items that are private and not pertinent to the national election, that I dashed off my letter. Let me say that it's good to see your name in print wherever it is. Letter-writing is a great way to express yourself and get your name out there.

Looking over the above paragraph I realized that I unnecessarily used forms of the verb "to be." Here are the corrections: "A columnist so incensed me with her....." ".....other private items that are not pertinent....." I may have my work cut out for me!! If you look over your writings and find out that, like me, you need work in this area, I'd love to hear from you. We can commiserate.

By the way, you may remember my apprehension about my first hot rocks massage. Let me say that there is nothing like it I'm hooked!