the cut

[boxofdelights]

Just sent mail to my daughter:

Cut almost 100 words. Mostly adverbs. Sorry, adverbs.

Young women use a lot of adverbs.

Context is that Nixie is applying for a grant for next year. Her project proposal and personal statement must be no more than 500 words each. They are 700-800 words each. She is too stressed by writing them to be able to see where to cut.

I used to have an image from the endnotes of a scanlation of the first volume of Kaoru Mori's Emma: Kaoru Mori's editor keeps pointing out things that could be cut, and she keeps exclaiming, "But that's the most important part!" I loved that! In the translation that got published in English, she says instead, "But that's very important!" Maybe that is a more accurate translation but it isn't as good.

Comments

[redbird]

Adverbs are fine, but if you have to cut, leaving the adverbs and removing the nouns or verbs will make the text much harder to read.

[jesse_the_k]

Adverbs, sadly, are often boring and tell don't show. Hooray for being smart enough to edit Nixie's applications and close enough to be asked.

[boxofdelights]

I do really like being close enough to be asked.