Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to
write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just
as it should be.
– Mark Twain
Very damn good advice. I’m tempted to take that advice. It is easier when editing and redrafting to delete expletives and obscenities than it is to remove extraneous adjectives.
Sometimes, if I stop and read certain passages aloud, I can hear by the cadence of the words where the flow slows.
It’s a ponderous procedure, and I think using damn and its literary ken would make my rewrites go very uh damn much easier.
Perle Champion 