Obsessed, written by Sandy Istvan

My husband thinks I’m glued to my chair, and I understand that. Almost daily I spend five hours or more writing. Call me obsessed. My characters are more familiar to me than friends and neighbors. I tell them what to do and save them from disaster; help them fall in love and console them when their relationships fall apart. Must be how God feels about His misguided flock.
In the past twelve months I’ve submitted two manuscripts to two publishers. And you guessed it; both were rejected. Ah, but rejection doesn’t daunt me; at least not for long. I just guzzle coffee and begin the hatchet job. Words that end in ‘ly’ are taboo. Can’t use the words was, were, had, has. If you search for such inappropriate wording and highlight it, an amazing crazy quilt of color enhances your pages. So it’s hack and substitute; hack and substitute. Sometimes it’s helpful to invert a sentence here and there. Why write ‘she was a beautiful young woman who had a lot to learn’?? After all, ‘men remained a mystery to the gorgeous babe’ says the same thing – doesn’t it?
After a time, the substitutions come automatically. But then the writer runs across the limited selection of replacement words. Say ‘had’ for example. She had a headache. Try ‘her head pounded like a trip hammer,’ or maybe ‘her head hurt so much she couldn’t see straight.’ More colorful, right? More interesting. Also more wordy, and therein lies the rub. Oh it’s a great pastime, this word folly.
I imagine seasoned authors spend a lot less time with word play. They’ve learned all the right words – even the proper off-color phrases their salty detectives and floozy females speak so well. As I said, I have a lot to learn. Gotta go – my lovers are waiting for me to send them to bed.