Cut Empty Phrases

Readers don’t want filler.

“Vigorous writing is concise,” says William Strunk Jr. in his classic book The Elements of Style. “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that … Continue reading

Unburden Your Dialogue

Don’t clog your lines with double attribution.

The author didn’t realize she was wasting words whenever her characters spoke.

In nearly every instance, she provided not only a dialogue tag, “Christina said,” but also a “beat” or “action tag,” a phrase describing what the character did as she spoke.

Consider this double attribution line:

“I’m so sorry,” Christina said, … Continue reading

Must You Write Tightly?

Don’t try this in your initial draft.

Forget tight writing and let your book’s first draft flow. Then practice tight editing. As Strunk & White advise in The Elements of Style, retain only those words that earn their keep. No freeloaders.

In the process you’ll find many candidates for deletion.

  • Replace adverb and adjective phrases with vigorous verbs and evocative nouns.
  • Zap empty expressions, … Continue reading