Quick Tips for Writers

Dear writers, here are a few tips to help polish your writing before submitting your manuscripts to publishers:

1. 1. 1. Write a character arc for your protagonist. They should grow during the journey from the beginning of the book to the end, and should be able to handle challenges at the end that they couldn’t at the beginning.

      2. Eliminate “to be” verbs. To streamline and tighten your writing, delete as many forms of “to be” as possible: be, am, is, are, was, were, being, been .

      3. Include all 5 senses. Engage your reader by including short scenes highlighting smell, taste, texture, and sound in addition to sight. We usually just include descriptions of what we see, but we should include all the senses in our writing.

      4. Do not use filtering. In writing, filter words come between the reader and the character’s point of view. Filtering makes the reader step out of the story and merely watch the character, rather than the action. Let’s look at some writing with filtering:

Jasmine felt her stomach sink as a large dragon rose above the horizon. She wondered if the last bit of magic she possessed would be enough to defeat it. She saw the dragon inhale deeply, as if gearing up to let out a burst of fire. It seemed angry as it gazed at her.

Here’s the same piece of writing after filtering is removed:

Jasmine’s stomach churned as a large dragon rose above the horizon. Would she have enough magic to defeat it? The dragon inhaled deeply, as if gearing up to let out a burst of fire. Its gaze met hers, and its eyes narrowed.

Here’s a list (not exhaustive) of common filter words to avoid.

· to see

· to hear

· to think

· to touch

· to wonder

· to seem

· to decide

· to know

· to feel

· to notice

· to realize

· to watch

· to sound