For the first, oh, decade or so of my writing career, I thought my writing was pretty good. So I didn’t understand why magazine editors found it necessary to take my perfectly serviceable sentences and render them “less interesting.” That is, until I realized, the editors were showcasing how to upgrade my writing using a writing hack or two.
Writing hack #1: Look for belabored beginnings
I liked to sound as though I were a pondering sort of person. As a result, I tended to start my sentences with something like:
There’s just something about our current suspended lives that makes me melancholy.
Editors would change that to read:
Our current suspended lives make me melancholy.
Suddenly my sentence went from twelve words to seven. And it’s so…direct. Eventually I realized that I wasn’t sounding like I pondered but like I was ponderous.
Writing hack #2: Look for passive verbs
I clogged up my writing with sentences such as this:
It is fair to say that the upcoming presidential debates will draw a large viewership.
How about I switch out that “it is” and shorten the sentence in the process?
The upcoming presidential debates will draw a large viewership.
The sentence reduces down from fifteen words to nine. And it conveys more energy.
Writing hack #3: Replace passive verbs with unexpected verbs
What if I rewrote the sentence this way:
No doubt the upcoming presidential debates will snag a large viewership.
Okay, now we’ve put the sentence on a diet and given it a makeover.
Writing hack #4: Use your word processing program’s search feature
Until your brain learns to switch on a red light every time you commit writing a needlessly ponderous sentence, here’s a trick. You can utilize Word’s search feature to find some of the offending sentences for you.
Search for:
- there are
- there is
- it is
- is
- are
And, yes, most sentences beginning with “there are,” “there is,” and “it is” can readily benefit from a diet.
Easy cleanup
We don’t often stumble onto such straightforward ways to cleanup our writing. Especially considering you can ask your computer to do the looking for you.
By the way, I have to confess that I almost started this section with this sentence:
It isn’t often we stumble onto…
Yup, I can now mumble to myself, “Physician, heal thyself.”
In what ways are you prone to writing belabored sentences? Raise your hand if you identify with being a “there are,” “it is” kind of writer, like me.
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I tend to tack on ‘already’, ‘yet’ or ‘just’ . Great tips! Thanks!
I may be raising my hand and waving it. I’ve had to work hard to identify and eradicate “There are…” and other phrases you’ve shared here. I also tend to use words like “some” unnecessarily.
Thanks for these tips!
I have a chatty writing style that lends itself to long and confusing sentences. Going back over my work, I have to cut length and things like “inexplicably” and “ill-considered” and of course “indubitably.” Not every one … but really, how many times does one need to use these big fun words. Yeah, not as often as one thinks during the first draft, ha!
Ha! I can relate the love of three-syllable words.
My words, they often lumber
like yawning elephant,
or woolens worn in summer
to the revival tent.
Sentences go ’round and ’round
(Does he even have a point?),
words that chase like hare and hound
and never deign appoint
the clarity of discipline,
the crystal prism born of light;
instead they sag like margarine
left out on a summer’s night,
oils relinquishing their bonds
to become small, sticky ponds.
Well expressed per usual, Andrew. I especially enjoyed the woolens in the revival tent.
Good thoughts about the ongoing war between active and passive voice. No matter how hard I try, I keep stumbling.
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