debtaber, posts by tag: eyeballs - LiveJournal

I've been reading quite a few posts on the Internet lately about "crutch" words.  You know, those things you stick in unconsciously to prop up your prose.  I thought of all the ones I search for and change, the times when I've caught something on the editing passes that I hadn't noticed while writing.  I thought I was doing pretty well.

Then I got my novel manuscript back from the editor who was looking it over for me before it went under official scrutiny.

Boy, was I embarrassed.

Not that I had a lot of crutch words, but now I see that all of my characters show their surprise, anger or shock by having their eyes "flare."  There were enough flaring eyeballs in that manuscript to light up the back woods of the Yukon on a cloudy, moonless night.  I guess next time I'm stuck on the roadside with a broken down car at night, or lost in the woods or on some desert island, I won't need to worry about striking that light.  I'll just pull out some of my characters and let the ocular front light the way.  If only I had known that during the power outages...