One of my friends in writing group made me painfully aware of the verbs I use, especially 'is,' 'was,' and 'were.' These are lazy verbs. They are unavoidable in some cases but only give the reader the bare necessity of information. For example: Hannah was exhausted. Could be Exhaustion overwhelmed Hannah. Another common use of was and were consist of using them to change the tense of another verb. Instead of using a compound verb such as was listening you could just have listened.
Getting rid of was and were is a painstaking process in many instances. While you can occasionally replace one with a stronger verb, other times you might need to rewrite the sentence. Here are a few more examples of changes you can make.
It was what he expected. Could be: He expected it.
There is always a line at the checking station. Could be: The checking station always has a line.
A guard was standing nearby. Could be: A guard stood nearby.
Sometimes you have to add more details. His diaries and his bicycle were destroyed. Could be: An accidental fire destroyed his bicycle and diaries.
It is nearly impossible to get rid of every 'was,' 'were,' and 'is' in a story but by keeping an eye out for them will tighten up your writing.
This is awesome. I am so bad at using these verbs. I like the many examples you used as well making it much clearer. Thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteI am glad I was able to help clarify. This is definitely something I've been working on the past year so I'm glad I can share the knowledge. One of my friends always notices verbs and lets me know when I use them too much. He's the one that has really helped me with this.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the award. I appreciate the honor.
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