RendezvouswithGretchenRhue

CONFESSIONS OF A LAZY WORD-MISER & THAT-A-HOLIC

Yes, I confess. I used to have a real THAT problem. In my early writing days I used THAT whether I needed it to convey meaning or not. After I had a consultation with a professional editor at a writing conference, I realized I used THAT unnecessarily. I felt sort of foolish. Why hadn’t I seen it before? But then I started listening to how people talk. THAT is sort of a filler used in verbal conversation. So it is only natural to use it in writing as well. Being able to recognize when not to use it is the key. And it’s fairly easy too.

Here’s an example:

Painting the house that his father built gave Arnold the feeling that his father was right beside him.

Can you see the two unnecessary THATs?

Here it is without the THATs:

Painting the house his father built gave Arnold the feeling he was right beside him.

The idea here is if you can leave out the THATs and it doesn’t change the meaning you’re trying to convey, then leave it out. Simple.

Here’s an example of a time you’d want to keep the THAT in the sentence:

The trophy was awarded to the team that ran the fastest.

If you remove the THAT, it would not correctly begin the phrase decribing the team. The sentence even sounds incomplete without the THAT.

But why did I call myself a LAZY WORD-MISER?

I relied heavily on adjectives and adverbs instead of strong verbs and the occasional mind-tickling adjective. Instead of letting the reader explore the feelings of the words, I tried to control and force their way of thinking by supplying everything for them. I had to learn to use the power of strong verbs and craftily selected adjectives to communicate the story.

And although I’m giving this advice, I’m still a work-in-progress. If you were to look at my first drafts, you would still find boatloads of THATs, weak adjectives, adverbs, and epecially the boring word WAS.

WAS is inevitable. You will use it, but try not to. Don’t be lazy with your ability to use better verbs. If alternate choices for WAS don’t come to you easily, then think of action words. What are your characters doing? If they were in a movie, what would the director tell them to do? How would they move?

Here’s an example of how to improve a sentence by the use of verbs:

1. He was looking at her. (Needs improvement.)

2. He looked at her. (Better.)

3. Her beauty mezmerized him. (An option.)

4. He ogled her. (Wow. Just 3 little words mean so much!)

I’m constantly on the hunt for better words, fine tuning each sentence as if it’s the one that will go on the back cover. My well-loved, taped-together dictionary and thesaurus can attest to that. They usually accompany me when writing. Whether you have a hard copy or consult these books online, make sure you don’t fall into the category of being a lazy writer. Your reader’s time is valuable. Don’t waste it on WAS, THAT, and weak writing.

HAPPY WRITING!