Chapter four of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Steering the Craft is on repetition, but I’ve not much to say on that one–rather am skipping right to the brief chapter five on “Adjective and Adverb.” What I loved was this:
“Somehow” is a weasel word; it means the author didn’t want to bother thinking out the story–“Somehow she just knew….” “Somehow they made it to the asteroid….” When I teach science fiction and fantasy writing I ban the word. Nothing can happen “somehow.”
I’m positive that somewhere in something I’ve written, I’ve used somehow. My task now is to seek it out and rewrite.
