Doing a Solve Is Key to Writing

Might've said, "You writers are always upset about someething."

One of the epiphanies I discovered was the reveal in building my crime story to its climax.  "No," screams the grammaraian in me.  "It's the revelation in the last paragraph!"

I do try to concentrate on my characters' dialogue.  Sometimes, the PI will want to do a "solve" on the crime, instead of finding a solution.  It's like those Hollywood scripters, asking to do a lunch and a meet.

The reveal, lunch and meet — all nouns demanding a verb — are a writing/speaking function that grates on the nerves when used in real life.  They’re called nominalizations and, God help us, they’re becoming mainstream dialogue.  Nominalization is a word that’s been switched from verb into noun.  But it reads well.  It’s a “solve” to the need to sound hip.  Now, we’re stuck with these conversion formations when sequestration becomes the “sequester” on the evening news.

A friend and fellow writer says she hates "This is key."  It's one in her repertoire of writing pet peeves.  "They make me want to scream ‘one more edit!’”

Can we agree to drop the "reveals" in our flash fiction, or do a sequestration?