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WaBoPs, or Wandering Body Parts, in their worst form are funny. For example, "He gave me his eyes," "he held his head in his hands," or "her eyes fell" tend to create interesting images if you stop and think about them. He didn’t really pop his eyes out and give them to me, did he? No, just as her eyes did not really fall out of her head and bounce around on the floor. While the reader certainly knows what you mean, there are better ways of saying this same thing. Instead of writing, "he gave me his eyes" try "he looked at me" or "he turned his gaze to me." Now if your character is honestly receiving eyes for some reason, say he’s a doctor or something, then that’s different, obviously, or if your writing horror involving a decomposing corpse then certainly her eyes can fall. But generally speaking, avoid WaBoPs. They can create a distraction at best. At worst, they can jar your reader right out of the story and give him a place to stop reading. The last thing you, as a writer, want, is for your reader to put the book down. After all, the more times he puts it down, the greater the chance he won’t pick it up again. |