By Larry Leech @LarryJLeechII

Spring cleaning. I have been aware of the name and of the concept for pretty much most of my life. But, when I lived in Florida, I never cleaned in the spring. If the driveway needed pressure-washed on December 15. Not a problem. Wash windows on January 3. Done. Fix a dead spot of grass in the yard on February 23. Sure. Let me run to Home Depot and get seed or a plug.

However, now the concept and the idea of spring cleaning makes more sense now that I have endured my first winter in South Carolina. After months of cold weather, at least for me, stuff looks “dirty.” Thresholds need cleaned. Windows need washed. The list goes on and on.

All this got me to thinking the other day. We have to “spring clean” our writing after pounding out the first draft. Just a word of caution, don’t spring clean (edit) during your first draft. Just get the story out.

Spring cleaning the second, third, fourth drafts, maybe more, entails a lot of things. Working on dialogue, making setting and description clearer, checking for those pesky “to be” verbs, getting rid of “that” as much as possible, eliminating qualifiers such as “quite, very, so.” And let’s not forget crutch words, which are different for each person. Another that I see often in every manuscript is the word “it.” Just make sure you don’t overuse the word and that it’s properly used.

Those are just a few. Years ago, I created a list of words and phrases that hinder writing. I call this my Magic 25. I work through this list while editing.

Here are two more issues that I see often when I edit or coach.

Dialogue tags in direct address between two people:

“Mom, I don’t want to go to a private school,” Frank said, storming out of the room and yelling over his shoulder.” I want to stay in public school with my friends.”

Mom, hot on his heels, screamed back. “You’re going, Frank, and I don’t want to hear another word about it.”

In this example, you don’t need Frank or Mom in the dialogue. Yes, we speak that way to each other, but in writing both are unnecessary.

Also, tags at the end of dialogue that shows intensity or tone. When the tag is at the end of dialogue, we don’t read the dialogue the way it was intended. For instance:

“I made a hole in one. I made a hole in one.” Andrew jumped up and down on the tee box, screaming.

When we put the tag first or early in the dialogue, we read it as intended.

Screaming, Andrew jumped up and down on the 17^th tee box at TPC Sawgrass. “I made a hole in one. I made a hole in one.”

Hopefully, you “hear” the difference there.

If you have questions about spring cleaning, or if you would like my Magic 25, feel free to contact me. I’d be glad to help. With your manuscript. 😊

Writing coach of award-winning novelists, Larry J. Leech II has spent nearly 40 years working with words. After a 23-year journalism career that began in 1981, Larry moved into freelance writing and editing in 2004. He has ghostwritten nearly 30 books and edited more than 250 manuscripts. Larry teaches at numerous conferences nationwide and can be found online on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and his website, www.larryleech.com.