Wow. That took me a good couple of hours but I’ve been through the entire manuscript and looked at all the variations on “saw”. There were over 300: one per page at least. It really made me think as I was doing it that its a great idea to do this. I can understand now how it distances the reader from the action. Instead of, “I saw lights flashing in the distance”, I can just write “Lights flashed in the distance and it’s a lot more immediate. Next up: heard, thought and wondered. Hopefully not as many of these.

Thanks for reading.

Richard

Update:

Oh my word: how many times did I use the word “wondered” in this story??? 

Another update:

Finished. Today I’ve done saw, heard, wondered and thought and all variations. That means I’ve implemented all the advice I got from Leslie. Now it’s time to find another beta reader to go through it.