Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Too Many REALIZations?


“Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”

Mark Twain


Craft advice for writing has a standard admonition to look at “weak words,” i.e. qualifiers that weaken prose. Examples of such oft mentioned are: Very, all, so, quite, rather. You get the idea. Mr. Twain^ said it with aplomb.


A few months ago, while working on my third draft of a novel for middle grades, I chanced upon another word a great writer felt indicated “lazy” writing. The word is realize.
The writer suggests using this word is a shortcut to the experience of realization, a telling rather than showing. A character realized something and stated they had this realization. The reader didn’t get to experience this, we heard about it. Lazy writer = lazy writing.


Something about this struck me as worth examining. Was he talking to me? 😯


Using the find function in Word, I discovered (ahm, realized) that in a 38,000~ word manuscript I have forty-three “realize.” I mean, I had the realization that while the word may have its best uses, forty-three is a few too many. 😶


With little effort, it was easy to eliminate half. The sentences lost nothing and gained directness. A few more needed showing what the character experienced viscerally instead of the statement that the character realized.


By the time this Saturday night verb massacre ended, (it was in fact a Saturday evening) fifteen “realize” were left standing. I’m not a purist, and I can never take any suggestion as absolute. But I suspect this battle with a tick-word I didn’t know I had was good for the story.


Even strong words can be tick-words. Weak or strong, catch and kick the ticks out.



10 comments:

  1. I had not realized this was a problem, but I agree that any word can be overused.

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  2. I love that quote from Mark Twain. When I do a final edit, I also use the search and destroy function. Ah, realizations--to make reality present, or revelations--to unveil what's hidden. So important both in stories and our lives.

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  3. I worked with a children's publisher who felt "went" was a lazy word. Better "walked" "ran" "drove" etc. Helpful blog!

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  4. Words we overuse can vary from writer to writer, but yes, be mindful of those that distance the reader.

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  5. I didn't realize that realize and realization are such a problem. I love the quotation from Mark Twain. It's very damn good.

    Love,
    Janie

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  6. I like Mark Twain's suggestion! Another word to take out is "just." "I just thought it would be a good idea."

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  7. Love that "search" feature. I had an interesting editing experience lately with a forthcoming MG novel - the editor asked me to take out any and all ableist language ("Ableist language is language that is offensive to people with disability. It can also refer to language that is derogatory, abusive or negative about disability.") For example, "that's such a lame joke," or "he's crazy good at playing soccer." School administrators/bureaucrats are apparently getting very picky about this. Live and learn...

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  8. I applaud you for writing so many novel manuscripts! I hope they all come to fruition.

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  9. A good point--the overuse of, and that we won't get rid of all of, our tick words.

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  10. Some of mine can change from manuscript to manuscript, but two I always look to decrease are "still" and "even."

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