Stop Adding Filler Words to Your Work

Remember when you were in school and you were struggling to get your paper to 5 pages, so you just made the sentences as long as possible (and put the font in Courier New)?

Well, we're grown now, but many of us are still writing like we have to do the most to fill up the page. 

#WriterWednesday tip: Stop doing this. Don't add more words than necessary to get your point across. It makes your writing clunky and buries the point. A short, clear sentence is better than a long confusing one, no matter how many pretty words you use. 

• Don’t use big words just because.

• Don’t add extra words to the sentence just to fill it out.

• Don’t add extra sentences to the paragraph just to make it longer.

This means that if you’re struggling with how to say what you need to say, take the shortest route from point A to B in order to make your point clear. If the cat walked across the street, write “the cat walked across the street.” Sure, there are more flowery ways that you can say this, but don’t just add words because you think the sentence needs to be longer or that using extra words makes you sound better.

Take it from an editor, a.k.a., someone who gets rid of words for a living- it doesn’t.