Some time back I read an unpublished novel by a friend of mine. Not a bad read. It's an action/adventure novel that shows promise, so much so that I forgot to edit it a few times and just got caught up in the story. What kept jarring me out of the world he created was reading nothing words. You know, those words that add nothing to the adjective, adverb or noun they are modifying. "Very," "really," "pretty" and "somewhat" were the most prominent. She was very beautiful, he was really tall, it was pretty awful, the slope was somewhat steep, he was really mad, she was very sad, the mountain was pretty tall, the pain was very horrible, she was somewhat upset, the sight was really terrible, she was pretty nice, and so on. On one page, I circled 10 instances of "very."
Once I pointed this out, he said, "I was trying to increase the impact."
Increasing intensity is a good thing, but nothing words won't do it. To punch up your writing, choose strong verbs and precise adjectives and telling adverbs. Nothing words sap a sentence of its strength and flow. Don't use them.
I know it's hard to do. I struggle daily to free my prose of nothing words, but you'll find your writing flows faster and cleaner without them.
What nothing words or phrases do you struggle with?
4 comments:
Re: nothing words.
Said.
My worst one is "actually." He actually flew through the air. She actually nearly fainted. (Ouch.)
since I don't write much of anything I don't have a nothing word. But when I talk I say you know a lot.
-Susan
I don't think "said" is a nothing word. It's totally invisible to readers. Trying to spruce up attributions -- he shouted, she spewed, he rambled, she sniffed -- is OK if used very, very (ha ha) sparingly. Otherwise, the attribution becomes the thing, stealing attention from subjects, other verbs and objects. Odd anecdote: In college, I wrote a news story quoting an Arab student whose name was Said (pronounced sah-eed). THAT was awkward. President Reagan is scary, Said said. Dukakis is a weenie, said Said. And so on.
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