Writers Tip #65: Thing? Really?

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: Don’t ever use ‘thing’, ‘something’, or any iteration of that word. That includes words like ‘stuff’, ‘you know’. You’re a writer. You can be more descriptive. Take a moment to use your skills and tell the reader what that ‘thing’ is.

What set me off? Too many titles that sound like this one:

Five Things that Tell You Who Your Characters Are

Sure, as an author, you have license, but you also have an obligation.

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More on words:

Fear of Saying Dumb Things Scares Me to Death

Writer’s Tip #46: Beware of Word Selection

Writers Tip #42: Avoid Rhyming Fiction; Stick With Prose Diction

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, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. In her free time, she is   editor of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Follow me .

Filed under: communication, words, writers resources, writers tips Tagged: thing, writers tips