In a new post, Janice Hardy suggests some simple edits that can strengthen your writing. Hardy suggests looking for weak or filter words in your writing, but instead of merely eliminating these terms, you should also examine the area around them for weak spots.
“While there’s nothing inherently wrong with a ‘weak word,’ they do tend to hang around trouble areas – just like those red flag words with show, don’t tell,” Hardy says. “They’re good places to start when something feels off in your work or you’re getting negative feedback and aren’t sure why.”
Hardy suggests searching for the following words:
- As – Writers often use “as” to show characters taking multiple actions at once or in quick succession, regardless of the logic. This often happens when you are trying to get a character from Point A to Point B. “While I know a sentence like this isn’t meant to be taken as if everything was happening at the same time, it often reads that way when all the events are grouped together,” Hardy says. This can pull your reader out of the story as they try to figure how what your character is doing and in what order.
- She said, doing something while talking – While fine in moderation, writers often add action tags to too many lines of dialogue. The reader doesn’t need to see every head nod or hand gesture. Overuse can drain the immediacy from your dialogue. If one of your scenes feels slow, read through it to see if you used too many action phrases.
- Knew – If your character thinks of something, there’s an implication that she knows it. You don’t need to restate her knowledge. Instead, reframe “he knew” and “she knew” phrasing as interiority, phrasing it in your character’s voice.
- Because – Because almost always signals backstory or an infodump. Find another way to relay the information that follows “because.”
- Things started or began – This happens when a character “starts to” take an action, such as “Bob started to walk toward the truck.” Unless Bob is interrupted, he either will or won’t walk to the truck. “Start” provides no real information to the reader and can be cut. Phrases like “tried to” and “almost” can work the same way, and may even convey the opposite of what you meant.
