@6:45, regarding the Thesaurus. I've found a wonderful substitute for that in S. I. Hayakawa's "Use The Right Word, A Modern Guide to Synonyms" (1968). I don't use it often, but it's a godsend when I need to use it. Comprehensively cross-referenced with a 26 page index, the 726-page book analyzes and dissects the subtly-different meanings of different synonyms of a search word, and often gives you further synonyms of the specific narrow meaning of a particular synonym. It's useful when I'm searching for--agonizing over!--that PERFECT word for something. I have a cherished hard copy version I bought in 1968. I don't know if it's online. A quick Google search just shows copies of the book for sale on various sites.

What about, "I challenge you to a duel," he said, sword drawn.

I am not sure how helpful getting criticism from other authors would be. I prefer someone who is a reader or potential reader of my genre. Having a conversation with them or better yet a group of them would be more useful. Writers are so steeped in the nuances of writing, they are not really capable of giving me what I need, which is were you immersed and what, if anything, yanked you out of that immersion. What broke the fourth wall. What felt off or didn't fit. They will say things like, "In the love scene both people did the same thing with a few words changed." This actually happened in a recent love scene I wrote too late at night, and basically phoned in half the scene, and didn't account for the different personalities between the two people. A full day's writing later, this became one of best love scenes so far in the book, according to that reader. It is for this reason, I am careful how much writing advice I choose to act on. For instance, there is an entire sect of writers who preach constant conflict, mostly for the sake of just having conflict without as much emphasis on its purpose other than making readers turn pages. This is great if your genre is comic books, not so great if there are complex three dimensional characters in your story.

#1 sign you’re serious about your video: timestamps

why do our stories have to be so formulaic? Why can't a story be interesting but ambigious about who the reader should be rooting for?

Puppies with blenders 😢😮

The novel I'm working on has (so far) 166,730 words. The word " and " accounts for 5030 or 3% of them. That sounds excessive.

"And" can also lead to long sentences, which reduces readability. Thanks for the video.

I want to say that it was Hemingway who coined the "AIC" method: you just plop your ass in the chair and don't get up until you've written. Of course, my recollection is a little fuzzy, because like Hemingway, I am a few beers in, fantasizing about fishing in the Gulf of Mexico...but yeah, just stick to writing. Just do it!

I hereby plant my comment as a flag to appreciate the semicolon; it is a wonderful piece of punctuation, to which I refuse to hear otherwise. 🧐

That word is "Pretentious."

Just a side note about Pepsi vs Coke: those blind taste tests generally work on a single sip. Pepsi is sweeter than Coke, so it has a major inherent advantage on a single sip. The more complex(not necessarily better) flavor of Coke survives better over a whole can or bottle.

If you eliminate the ‘ands’ aren’t you left with short choppy sentences?

I thought gerund was pronounced "jeh·ruhnd" -and- I googled it to verify -and- I h@te nitpicking -and- still a good video.

When editing I substitute "and" with "but" in an attempt to add confllict. Also guilty of overusing gerunds. Writing is tough-so many things to be mindful of... 🤔

Being a student of Latin for over a quarter century, I can tell you that gerunds are indispensable parts of my toolbox. Latin is so grammar-heavy and succinct that I feel 100% comfortable with the semicolon too. "And" turned almost meaningless to me as I really wrapped my head around all that Latin, Greek, and even German can do with other richer structures. I would highly suggest serious writers look at ancient languages and their beautiful forms. As an example, the famous "nos morituri te salutamus," a four-word phrase, becomes a watered-down mess in English: nos [we] morituri [who are about to die (actively in the process of dying)] te [you] salutamus [we salute]. I wish English would capture gerunds and gerundives as beautifully as Greek and Latin (fugiendos nihil proderunt-fleeing [because they were fleeing], they could do nothing). Maybe my writing feels halting and clunky, but I've been spoiled reading one-word sentences and mind-bending temporal clauses for years. English often comes across like a technical manual.

I love semicolons; I use them all the time.

Another word I watch for is to be, in all of its forms. Usually there’s a stronger verb I can use in its place. I prefer simple past to gerunds. Using “as” in dialogue tags is a good trick.

I don't write novels, personally. There's very little kudos or money in writing them. Very few people will care about your book, or that you've written one. You'll be just another name on a shelf, and your book will most likely remain there. At least you will have written a book and you've only wasted a couple of years of your life. There's harsh and then there's harsh, I guess.

I've always found "That" to be a problem.

And is used to great advantage in Blood Meridian--and your point is?

I agree with the idea that you end up weakening on action by combining it with another, but other than that I am not sure I buy this argument overall.

Gerunds imply the actions taking place at the same time too right?

I think the best lessons from this video are that words should be used with purpose and try to vary your writing. Some things should stand alone. Some things should work together with other things, creating a different type of flow. I like using semi-colons; they're a nice change of pace.

And. Was. Has.

I only try to avoid words like sudden/suddenly, so, and just. Those words will kill a work pretty quick and I'm guilty of overusing two of the three. It takes a LOT of concerted effort to consciously avoid their use as much as possible.

“I’m not a master…. I’m not someone who’s good at debating” Took me the splittiest of split seconds. 😂😂

Vonnegut was right. Semicolons suck in fiction. They always make me pause awkwardly when I see their weird lowercase J or I selves. It's a strange concept, as if the writer is saying "hey, in case you didn't know, these two sentences are related." When I'm in the reading flow a period almost always works just as well.

This is also true for academic cover letters when it comes to the overuse of "dyads": "I created and revised curricula. I developed new teaching materials and implemented them in the classroom. I attended conferences and served on committees...."

Oh FFS. Read the Tralala chapter of Hubert Selby Jr's "Last Exit to Brooklyn." Read Molly Bloom's closing soliloquy from James Joyce's "Ulysses." To any well-read person watching this video, you have utterly disqualified yourself from giving writing advice. No wonder you have so few subscribers - your advice is worthless.

It seems "and" was a favorite word with the King James version of the Bible. Some say author Cormac McCarthy's favorite word was "and."

This is a wonderful exploration of voice. I would like to mention the author that does distinct character voice better than just about any other (IMO), James Alan Gardner. His characters are so distinct that reading any excerpt, no character's external or internal voice can be mistaken for others', the author's, or narration.

The cat! 7:16

Some words spurt erratically from a weak semicolon; some erupt explosively from a full colon, while others mature after a period, but those connected and separated by an and are often abandoned.

It’s an endless challenge, that’s for sure, trying to avoid repetitious structures. As said in the video, gerunds suck too when overused, especially to begin paras. At the risk of reading like an ellroy-esque machine gun (nothing wrong with that but his thing, not mine) i’ve been trying to break things down into two shorter sentences whenever i can.

Perfect timing for this video as I'm in the process of editing my first book. Going over it, I'm finding a lot of "ands." I will be fixing many of those soon. Your channel is among my favorites. You present your ideas and suggestions in a concise, easy to understand manner. I love your sense of humor!

Psst… (whispering) use Geronimo and Germany and giant as your gelatinous guide (but DON’T use guide itself) for pronouncing gerund.

And?

Good stuff

It's funny that you posted this today. Just this morning, I was staring at a paragraph I had written, and I was wondering if I should get rid of the and, for all the reasons you just stated.

Conan-Doyle wrote "The spackled bAND". And now?

Let's call it "anding"

Patrick O'Brian is a master of the semicolon. Imbibing a lot of his work will see them popping up in your work; probably not as masterfully.

'And' is useful in certain situations, but I can't put words to why its true, but this is an example of two tightly related things, or that I want to be two tightly related things: "The aroma of garlic and simmering sauce envelops her, a comforting smell that announces 'home'." I am less connecting two ideas so much as creating one feeling.

My rough has so many extraneous ands. There's a few places where i consider it part of the "music", but in most cases they're bound for the chopping block.

I will have to admit I used the word Well in dialogue to such a point Captain Ahab might pop up.

"Then" , "just" there are some words that I try not to use too frequently. Then there are some words, like "thrust" or "weird" that have been ruined for me in overuse, etc.

usually I'm a custard filled but when you first mentioned it, I got an image of an apple fritter in my mind. So... I guess today I'm an apple fritter.

I don't even understand the thought process that would lead someone to ask this question. There is no beginning, middle, and end. Those are imaginary. A universe is taking place. It was taking place before you started writing, and it will be taking place when you stop writing. The whole thing is the middle. Your goal is to drag the reader in and immerse them until they can no longer tell they otherwise live in the real world. They are escaping into that universe and don't want to come out. Even when you finally kick them out, all cold and crying, back to the real world, they know that universe still exists and if another volume comes out, they can walk through the portal, and this time, they will find a way to stay..

As to the revision thing ... there is also the one pass revision class out there. Perfectionism is a killer. As said mentor reminds us: Each work we turn loose is the Best We Can Do At That Exact Moment. Yes, three pages into the proof from the publisher, including Kindle, etc of the self publication, one is gonna find things that could have been done better. Use it in the next book. And this from someone who is on the umpteenth revision of a 10 year old novel ... because at 83K, there were four short stories masquerading as chapters. <laughter> (side note, I have the one pass revision class, but can't really make it work ... i am soooooooooooo not professional. <laughter>)