Not "To be"

 

Terry here, with our question of the week: Look at your last book and count the number of times you used is, are, was, and were. Thoughts? Lessons learned? 
 I have belonged to a particular writer’s group for thirty years. Many years ago one of the members brought the use of the word “to be” to our attention. She cautioned that those words—is, are, and were--could be stand-ins for stronger verbs: Instead of “Jim Ziskin IS coming for dinner. Mary IS going to serve soup,” say, “Jim Ziskin promised...