Blog Post

Armando’s (hopefully not too pretentious) advice for writers: words and phrases to stay away from unless they are in dialogue

Unless you are writing dialogue, stay away from: Immediately, so, as he (or as she), really, at all, right hand, left hand, then, very, quite, (I’ll add more as they come to mind when I’m away from the blog)

I am not saying to never use them but use them sparingly.

Why keep from using such words and phrases? I can only speak for myself. Having unnecessary words in my story telling slows down the action - slow action is boring - boring is a killer for an author.

Examples:

He turned and immediately saw her - as opposed to - He turned and saw her - or - he turned, and there she was

She used her left hand to brush her hair and her right hand answer the phone - as opposed to - she brushed her hair with one hand and answered the phone with the other. Using “right” and “left” takes the reader’s attention away from the action for a beat while they imagine using one hand or the other.

More later…