It seems that everyone wants their fifteen minutes of fame. It takes courage to get in front of cameras to be noticed. When it comes to writing so many of those same individuals do the equivalent of standing on the sidelines with their hands in their pockets, shuffle their feet, stare at the floor, and mumble.
Think of writing Blink Fiction as your opportunity for fifteen minutes of fame.
Would you rather appear as weak and ineffective or strong and powerful? The choice is yours on camera or in your writing. With a few simple changes you can tighten your writing to transform it from weak to powerful.
Eliminate Words That End With 'LY'
The words that end with 'ly' are adverbs. Consider them the equivalent of a 90lb weakling. Compare these two sentences. "He quickly entered the room." "He burst into the room." By using a verb instead of an adverb the sentence has greater immediacy.
Eliminate Words That End With 'ING'
The second ending on our list is known as a gerund. Why a gerund exist or what it does is not as important as to know it is another element to eliminate from your writing. A writer's life would be less stressful if it was an easy matter to rid your writing of 'ing' words, but as you probably noticed not practical (note: the word 'writing'). Do the best you can.
Eliminate the Word 'IS' (whenever possible)
Are you going to stomp out the word 'is' from writing? Impossible and not necessary. What you'll find that the word 'is' often accompanies the weasel words that end with 'ing'; as in "He is running." A better solution would be to write, "He runs."
Weasel Words to Avoid
- very
- like
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