It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. - Seneca

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Chapter 4 from EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH by Eliza Knight... How to avoid those pesky FILLER WORDS ...



Welcome back lovely readers and writers! Today, I’m giving you a taste of Chapter Four from EDIT YOUR BOOK IN A MONTH.

Excerpt from Chapter Four, Edit Your Book in a Month © Eliza Knight

Filler Words

Filler words are words we throw into our sentences to take up space. Just like fillers in food, we don’t need them. Your sentence won’t lose strength by deleting it. In fact, you may find your sentence is stronger without it. A lot of times these filler words can also become our favorites…but we’ll get to that section in a bit.

These are common filler words:

*Just
*That
*Had
*As
*Was
*Nearly
*Almost
*Only
*All
*Started
*So


Here is an example of how these offensive little fillers can end up crowding and contaminating our prose:

She just couldn’t stand it at all any longer. She started to push away her plate that was only filled with uneaten food as she sat forward. She had had enough. Her stomach was nearly rolling from nausea. Why couldn’t she just tell him? Was it just that she was a coward?

Can you see what’s wrong with the above? If we took out all the filler words, the paragraph would be so much tighter, more effective.

Here’s a look at the above paragraph, filler words highlighted:

She just couldn’t stand it at all any longer. She started to push away her plate that was only filled with uneaten food as she sat forward. She had had enough. Her stomach was nearly rolling from nausea. Why couldn’t she just tell him? Was it just that she was a coward?

Come back Thursday to read one more excerpt! If you want to read more, take your chances on Friday, I will be giving away copies, or you can purchase the e-book on Amazon, and coming in the next week, the print copy.

Happy Writing and Editing!

Eliza
http://www.elizaknight.com/
http://www.authormichellebrandon.com/
http://historyundressed.blogspot.com/

E-book buy link: Amazon

2 comments:

Renee Vincent said...

Amazing......I try to be aware of filler words, but sometimes, because of normal speech patterns, they end up in there.

Thanks Eliza!

Samanthya Wyatt said...

Thanks for the tip Eliza. I use those words thinking I need them for effect. Looks like I don't. I'll look at those in my MS.
I took a Medival class you taught and I enjoyed it so much. You're a well of info.
Samanthya

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