I've gotten the feedback from my beta readers, so I've been working on my next draft of The Reaping. Can I say I love my beta readers? It's so nice to know I'm not writing in a vacuum. Sometimes it feels that way, and getting outside opinions is an enormous help.
One of the best advice for this book from one of my beta readers is to eliminate most of my adverbs. As I've been reading and rereading my draft, I realized that oh boy do I ever love my adverbs! So I've been cutting and cutting and hacking away. I've left some, but most of them have now seen the bloody end of my vicious red pen.
One of the more choice examples that I've eliminated?
"quietly whispers"
Seriously? Oh, yes, it was in there. Not only is it redundant, but a perfect example of a useless adverb. Does a reader really have to be told that a whisper is quiet? No I trust you, my lovely readers, to know that a whisper isn't a shout. What was I thinking?
But that's why beta readers are essential and wonderful. Getting someone else's eyes looking at my work helps me take a step back and see it more objectively. So here's to more adverb slashing!
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