Awkward sentences can be found in most manuscripts. These are the sentences that don’t seem ‘right’. They might be difficult or clunky to read and sometimes they can be downright confusing.
The reason that awkward sentences are such a problem in your manuscript is that they make reading hard work. If your reader has to re-read sentences to understand what you have written, they will get annoyed and may not finish reading the book.
So how do you find the awkward sentences in your manuscript?
Read your manuscript out loud, highlight sentences that your tongue stumbles on and ones that you end up reading twice to understand the meaning. These sentences may even be grammatically correct but if you have highlighted them you will need to take a closer look at them.
Here are some ways you can fix those awkward sentences.
- Cut out repetitious words that don’t add anything to your sentence.
- Remove words that don’t add any meaning. For example: quite, almost, indeed, pretty, so, etc.
- Replace words that are difficult to read or uncommon with another word that is more commonly used. Exception to the rule: if you are using this method sparingly for characterisation.
- Try rewriting the sentence in various ways until you have one that reads better.
To make sure you have made your manuscript smoother read it out loud once more following the same process.
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