How to Be a Better Writer: Get Rid of the Lazy Words

During a conversation with my accountability partner, she paused, horrified. “I said ‘very,’” she explained, “and I’m trying to rid myself of lazy words.” The phrase so captured my attention that I told her I was going to “borrow” it. She affirmed the quasi-loan, though, so there’s that.

Lazy words are filler words. They act similar to verbal pauses in speech. As an example, I fell prey to “just” in graduate school. I probably still do, but I gained a heightened awareness during a weekly writing workshop. Someone commented on the usage, and I was forever conscious of finding and scrubbing out the “lazy word.”

Other lazy words include the aforementioned “very,” as well as “really.” They add nothing to the writing unless the writer is using them to create a certain effect. I, for instance, sometimes use “really” to be facetious. I know the rules about lazy, filler words, so I break them from time to time.

Words that end in “-ly” also can be lazy ones. They hint that a strong verb, adjective, or noun remains undiscovered. The statement isn’t bedrock; an adverb adds a nice touch now and again. I, unlike Elmore Leonard and Stephen King, do not hold court as an “anti-adverb activist.” (Leonard and I do share a dislike of exclamation points, though.)

To get rid of such lazy words, I recommend one course of action: editing and revision. Good writers look at their work critically and examine it for the hemming and hawing of “just,” “really,” and “very.” They also look at the adverbs and ask, “Is this word necessary? Could I find a better verb or noun? Does the surrounding context make the adverb extraneous?”

They then cut, cut, and cut some more. Afterward, they gather the scraps and reshape them into something wondrous and strong, something worth writing home about. They accomplish that because they, like you, do the work of the better writer. They get rid of the lazy words.

Image: gRuGo (Creative Commons)