In the past two months, I’ve edited three novels and critiqued more than twenty-five sets of openings chapters. These drafts crossed many genres, and the writers ranged from published authors to newbies with a story that must be told.
There are several issues, from significant to minor tweaks, that I see repeatedly, so I thought I’d review some of these over the next few weeks.
For our first episode, we’ll review one of the most common and easiest self-edits you can make. Let’s talk about those infamous “to be” verbs.
First up: ‘To be’ verbs
The to-be verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been) are perfectly good words. I just used one. They’re useful (there’s another… and another). They don’t fall into the category of a mistake or grammatically incorrect, but in fiction or creative nonfiction writing, they tend to weaken the prose when overused. And they’re often overused.
To-be verbs describe a state of being rather than an action. Often, the writer could find a more active, interesting way to rephrase a sentence.
A sample revision
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to A Writer's Block: Robb Grindstaff to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.