Don’t Jack up your Writing With Clutter: Two Examples

Whether you're writing a novel, a legal pleading, a news article, or whatever, it should be as clean as possible, using only the words needed to communicate the idea. This is certainly true in business and legal writing, but is equally true in writing fiction.

Here are two examples clunky writing that are easily fixed.

Example 1: “Reached out to...” or any of its variants. I suppose this tired and childish phrase has its uses, but is used constantly to mean “contacted,” or “asked.” If that’s w...