I just eradicated the word “nice” from the fairy book. As of a few minutes ago the word does not appear even once in the manuscript. It is entirely free of “nice”. I am so proud!
I tried to do the same with “good” but I failed. One day I will write a “good”-free book. One day!
You will be like the georges perec of y.a., only without the chainsmoking and the supreme weirdness! (this is assuming you don’t chain-smoke . . .)
Georges Perec, eh? I likes it.
And you are correct. I do not chain smoke. I smoke nothing, not chains, not cigarettes, not anything.
In fact, no YA author smokes so as not to be a bad influence. We take our responsibilities seriously.
i had to something of that nature when i worte a story of english in jr. high school.
our teachers wanted us to cut half of our to-be verbs wich are…
1.is
2.am
3.was
4.were
5.be
6.being
7.been
in half.so if we had 100 to-be verbs we had to cut it down to roughly to 50.
the teachers also did not want two sentences right after on another starting with the same word.
Do you think it made your story better?
i think so. it tooka really long time. and know i am going back and rewriting the stories that i wrote in 7th and 8th grade making them more adult sounding and increasing how many words that there are because i had a word limit od i think 3,000 words.
i rewrote the first paragraph of one of my stories call the missing spot, and it was a page and a half long,
funny, i feel like i’m writing a good-free book as we speak.
See, I thought that’s what I’d done with “good” and “nice” and I was so proud. But then I searched and the dread truth was revealed. So I ruthlessly went through and nuked as many as I could.
Search your document for “good”. Are there really none? If so. I bow down to you, Robin. You are amazing!
Oh, the *word* good shows up plenty. It’s just the *quality* of good that I fear might be missing…
You was joking. I am such a literal minded fool! Sorry!
Not that you are capable of writing a good-free book!
oh, i don’t mind nice or good. sometimes they’re irreplaceable like “he was a good dog.”
but when i worked in magazines i got really, really sick of: gutsy (especially when applied to handbags or nail polish), luxe (meaning luxurious or sometimes velvety), glam (short for you know what), moxie (instead of nerve or chutzpah). Then there are the phrases like “’nuff said.” (Choke me now.) It just seems to reduce everything to the same level, whether it’s courage or nail polish.
p.s. Justine, I just re-sent you the list of multiculti fantasy novels so do check to see if it got eaten again.
I have recently become aware of the fact that Beatrix Potter overused the word “dear.” We all have our faults.
what’s wrong with the word ‘nice’ anyway? it’s very nice – except when it’s nasty… so how times have you used the words ‘nasty’ and ‘bad’ ?
My word like this is “still” — this book, at least. It is driving me mad — still!
That’s nice, dear. Good for you.
You could always put back in one “nice” -only spell it “nyce” and use it in the Chaucierian sense (the opposite of it’s modern meaning) – that would be fun…
Ack. “it’s” Pthuie.
hehe. no more ms.nice guy. hehehe. 👿
-Lizzy-wa OUT! 😈
yesterday we had to take a ela benchmark test. it took us all day. we had to write an essay, answer questions over 2 stories, do short answer questions, and read stories that we had to find mistakes and fix them.
it was a long day.
it took me from 8:30 in the morning, a 30 min break for lunch, and then until 1:00.