Writer’s Tip #39: Get Rid of Qualifiers
When you read your story, does it sound off, maybe you can’t quite put your finger on it, but you know you’ve done something wrong? Sometimes–maybe even lots of times–there are simple fixes. These writer’s tips will come at you once a week, giving you plenty of time to go through your story and make the adjustments.
Today’s tip: Clear out qualifiers.We are used to using words that minimize our commitment to one side or the other, give wiggle room should we need it. Don’t do that any more! Exorcise it from your writing!
What am I talking about? Here are some examples:
She was pretty sure
They were almost there
He was quite certain
It was almost 2pm
It was slightly colder than yesterday
The man appeared to pause
She seemed to beckon him
Take a stand one way or the other. Your reader wants to see you as the authority, not some wishy-washy wanna-be author. Commit. It feels good.
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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blog,Technology in Education featured blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Today’s Author. In her free time, s he is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: communication, writers resources, writers tips, writing Tagged: qualifiers, writers resources, writers tips, writing
