There are some who, to varying degrees, suggest eliminating being verbs from your prose. Since being is such a pivotal part of our language, a building block really, why would anyone suggest such a thing?<\/p>\n
This is one of those \u201cso-called rules of writing\u201d that I mentioned in a previous article. In other words, there are no rules, there are only actions and consequences.<\/p>\n
The consequence of using a being verb is that it is motionless. It can create a sense of standing still, especially when overused. In strong fiction (and in many other types of writing) you want a sense of movement to keep readers turning pages. Moreover, you want flavor and diversity to your language that the overuse of *any* word can squash.<\/p>\n
For example:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe train is on time.\u201d
\n\u201cThe museum is crowded.\u201d<\/p>\n
In contrast, you can make these ideas move by putting active verbs in them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe train pulled into the station on time.\u201d
\n\u201cPeople stood elbow to elbow in the museum.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sentences without being verbs in them not only move, but also create a more vivid image.<\/p>\n
Of course, sometimes things simply are. In those cases, you can draw unfavorable attention to convoluted sentences attempting to wind their way around being.<\/p>\n
For example:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe couch exudes greenness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ouch!<\/p>\n
How much is too much? That is largely a matter of style. I don\u2019t think it is a bad exercise for beginning writers to try, for a little while, to remove as many being verbs as possible. This isn\u2019t because their finished drafts should be free of being, but rather because the exercise challenges you to think of more active and powerful alternatives that can make your writing shine. When you force yourself to think of them, you\u2019ll find that most being verbs can go. Even that green couch doesn\u2019t have to \u201cbe\u201d green. You can combine it with another sentence and tell us something interesting about it, such as, \u201cNo one had ever cleaned the smelly green couch.\u201d<\/p>\n
So strive to make your writing move by not making everything simply be, but don\u2019t drive yourself crazy over it when things simply are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are some who, to varying degrees, suggest eliminating being verbs from your prose. Since being is such a pivotal part of our language, a building block really, why would anyone suggest such a thing? This is one of those \u201cso-called rules of writing\u201d that I mentioned in a previous article. In other words, there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips-for-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christineamsden.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}