List of Weak Words to Seach for While Editing! Print and Save This!

Today I am not blogging about book marketing! Shocking, I know!!! Instead, I am posting about writing mechanics. So, here we go!

Show, don't tell is a direction often given to writers to write in a such a way that allows readers to "experience the story through a character's action, words, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather than through the narrator's exposition, summarization, and description." Source: Wikipedia

While you are writing and editing your work, search for the following words and see if you can improve your sentences by eliminating many of the following words. Print this off and keep it handy! (If you haven't started editing yet and it's your first time, trust me, you'll thank me later!)

Words to Watch Out For:

Felt / Feel

Heard / Hear

Saw / See

Knew / know / had known

Wondered

Realized

Decided

Seemed

Began

Wished

Hoped

Use Active Voice, Not Passive: Style of writing that helps to show, not tell!

Words to Check: (remember in the 'find' feature to check the 'find exact match' box for words that are only two or three letters long)

To be

Are

Was

Were

Has

Had

Have

Have Been

Did

Does

Also: Past Participles (verb form often ending in -ed)

Other Weak Words: I found myself starting off a lot of dialogue with "So, ..." and "Well, ..." and "Oh, ..." which are really not needed.

Just

Well

As if

While

Jill Elizabeth Nelson presented some great before and after examples in her article "On With the Show; Off With the Tell":

Instead of writing, He thought a good bath wouldn’t hurt the dog, write, Whew! A good bath would do this dog a world of good.

Instead of, She feels a sinking sensation in her middle, write, Her stomach drops to her toes.

Instead of, He knew that if she did that, she’d fail, write, If she did that, she’d fail.

Instead of, She wondered how she would get through the next day, write, How could she possibly survive the next day?

Instead of, I wished I hadn’t said that, write, If only I hadn’t said that.

View her article HERE - it is very helpful!

More in depth articles on Show, Don't Tell:

http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/showing/

http://www.freelancewriting.com/articles/show-dont-tell-in-fiction-writing...

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art47547.asp

http://www.suite101.com/content/show-dont-tell-a110319

Does anyone else have other advice or words to watch out for??

I have been doing line edits this week, so this has been on my brain! Best of luck to everyone! Cheers! Jan

Tags: active, craft, passive, show, writing

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Comment by Jan Fischer Wade on October 11, 2011 at 9:02am: Hi Chloe! Thanks for your comment - so true!!! Best wishes! Jan

Comment by Chloe Jeffreys on October 10, 2011 at 8:17pm: I have taken this post to heart and cleaned up my writing. Weak words come from my own weak thoughts and fears. When I'm afraid I'm inclined to use words like "I think" or "I feel" or "I believe" or hedge my bets by using passive verbs. Now I use those words in my first draft, but go back and take them out. If I can't definitively say what I think, feel or believe then it doesn't deserve to be said at all.

Comment by Jan Fischer Wade on October 10, 2011 at 7:07pm: Thanks Candy! Tomorrow is another list of blah adjectives and adverbs to save - it was tremendously helpful when I was line editing! Best of luck to you!! Cheers! *clink* *sluurrrrppp*

Comment by Candy Fite on October 10, 2011 at 7:03pm: Great post, Jan! I'm saving your "lists" on my computer!

Comment by Yejide Kilanko on October 10, 2011 at 8:55am: Thanks for the adding. Congrats on your book as well and thank you for all the useful info you post :)

Comment by Jan Fischer Wade on October 7, 2011 at 6:40pm: Tuesday I'll be posting a list of 'blah' words to look for (adverbs and adjectives) and share some 'sparkly' words to use instead (Thanks to Autumn!!!)! It should be another post to print off and keep for use while you are writing or editing! Cheers!

Comment by Jan Fischer Wade on October 7, 2011 at 5:23pm: Hey Autumn! It will be posting on Tuesday morning, I truly hope it is helpful!

Comment by Autumn on October 7, 2011 at 5:01pm: I can't wait to see what you come up with Jan! And it will be interesting to hear what other peeps decide to add! :)

Comment by Jan Fischer Wade on October 6, 2011 at 7:05pm: OOOHH!! Love the idea Autumn!! I will get on that and see what I can dig up!!!! I'll do a blog post and see what others can contribute as well!! I'll try to post it Tuesday (if I can find enough 'sparkly' words to share)!! THANKS!!

Comment by Autumn on October 6, 2011 at 5:34pm: I was reminded of this thread last night while listening to a teleseminar on how to pitch a book ~ near the end of the discussion one of the speakers suggested watching movie trailers and checking out blurbs for new books and then compiling a list of great "pitch words" - one that came up was sparkly. (I assure you I didn't come up with that one. lol!) Anyway, I thought it would make a nice list to go with this one ~ words to use/incorporate along with ones to watch out for! Any ideas for that list?