Writing Craft: Watch Out For These Killers

If you use the words below, you will be marked for a rank amateur.  Avoid them whenever you can.   

Don’t worry about them in your first draft. Just write. Then go back and use your FIND function and highlight them.  Print out a copy with highlights and double-spaced.  Take a pencil and rewrite. 

This exercise will tighten your writing, give you practice using better vocabulary, and help refine your style.

Never begin a sentence with the following: (The exception is if your character speaks like that or if you are occasionally breaking the rule to emphasize a point.)

Are

Is

It
There
These
Was
Were

Check for these endings. Avoid them whenever possible.

-ing

(only use –ing words to show absolutes)

-ly
-wise
-ward

Avoid these vague pronouns:

there are        

these were               
these was                 
this is                      
this was
that was
these are
these were