1. A story that opens in any place other than a bed, a bar, or a bordello.
2. An adverb/verb ratio < 1:100.
3. Family stories that do NOT involve incest or physical abuse.
4. Typo-free pages.
5. Paragraphs shorter than one page.
6. A paucity of passive voice.
7. An adjective/noun ratio which does not exceed 1:1.
8. Stories where every word deserves its place.
9. Characters I wish were real.
10. Anything that keeps me reading because I have to find out how it ends.
And you?
Peace...
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I was with ya, 100%, until I got to paucity - then I had to stop and look it up. Then I was back with ya, 100%.
ReplyDelete11. Stories free of two-buck words ;^)
ReplyDeletePeace...
I'd like to be clear on #7.
ReplyDeleteDo I have to shorten my descriptions?
Could you give an example?
Thanks!
Hi Perri, I am a big fan of the single strong adjective. So this does not work for me:
ReplyDelete"An alien smell, warm and uneasy between the layers of chilly air..."
Here, warm and uneasy end up weakening the strength of 'alien', so I would ditch those additional modifiers.
In narrative, more than one adjective is okay once in a while, but when adjectives pepper the entire story, or large chunks, my eye tends to skin to the next verb. I find revising my own work to find the strongest noun/verb/adjective hard work; however, to do otherwise is often taking the lazy way out.
A personal preference, other editors may feel differently. Peace...
Dang, and here I was ready to submit my story, The Bordello Bed-wetter Raises the Bar.
ReplyDelete#12 Stories I wish I'd written myself.
I'm not an editor, but if I were:
ReplyDelete13. Originality
Cheers!
Can I just copy your list? :P
ReplyDelete