The Mystery Starts Here

I ran across this neato word yesterday I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before! What is a pleonasm? It’s a redundancy of words in speaking or writing; the use of more words than necessary in expressing ideas. I try to keep them out of my writing but I suspect they sneak in. I’ve seen them in published books and some of them make me giggle.

One I see a lot that amazes me is, A.M. in the morning., or P.M. at night. I can’t help but say, duh! How about cold ice or hot fire or dark night. I’ll bet we’re all guilty of these. If you write or read mysteries I’m sure you’ve seen – cease and desist. Means the same thing and it’s redundant. How about aid and abet? Yup, a pleonasm. I’m reading a book now were a man was referred to as a new recruit! Oh, and I love this one and hear it all the time. New baby. Ah, have you ever heard of or seen an OLD baby?

When you’re on your final re-write you’ll want to remove as many pleonasms as you can. Cut them and the meaning of the sentence doesn’t change at all. Be sure to watch out for these frequently used pleonasms: ‘just’, ‘that’ and ‘actually’. For instance, "I actually just know that he’s the killer." Can be trimmed to: "I know he’s the killer." Remember, good writing is tight writing, so hunt down those pleonasms and kill them!

I’m reading a mystery novel now that’s driving me nuts. The author does several things I’ve been taught not to do. She keeps modifying the verb, said, with adverbs. You know, "Carol said sadly." " Billy said hysterically." As if that weren’t bad enough, she has this penchant for describing what everyone is wearing. I don’t care! I grunbled, I groused and finally my husband Dennis, (he’s the smart one, I’m the pretty one) asked, "But, is it a good story?" Well, yes. The book passed my 50 page rule, it’s holding my interest and I keep turning those pages, so it must be good.

I was surprised to find that this is not the author’s first published book. It’s her eighth. One would think she’d get better with each new manuscript, but she might not even realize how annoying those gaffs are. So why does she consistently publish? She writes good stories. Every time I gripe about lousy writing, my husband tells me he doesn’t notice things I mentioned and thinks most readers don’t either. They are reading for story.  Kind of makes me wonder why I’ve spent years and thousands of dollars learning to write.

I’ll continue to write the best books I can, the right way, but I’ll make sure my stories are great too. After all, that’s why we are read, isn’t it?