Taking Your Writing Up a Notch
So you’re finished with the first draft (at least I am) not it’s time to polish. Where do you start? Here are some things to look for when you start the editing process:
Look for ways to make your verbs stronger. Below is a list of passive verbs, but not even an active verb can be improved upon. For example, the man walked doesn’t tell us anything about how the man walked. Did he hurry, stomp, crawl, sneak. Look for ways to bring your verbs to life.
Check for and eliminate . . . passive voice. Just do a search on these words and try to replace them with something more active!
was that ing words
became to be adverbs [-ly]
seems eventually to demonstrate
to feel were
to experience to convey to seem
to express to display to look
to show herself himself
would exactly simply
about finally even
to appear somehow utterly
close to here actually
somewhat almost just
really already kind of
somewhat like sort of
almost suddenly appears
just then nearly practically
now there approximately
basically truly then
