New Year Writing Workout #6: Simply the Action (Suddenly and Before)

This one isn’t an exercise in the true sense of the term, it is more like a tip to simplify the action in your writing to make it clearer and stronger.

Search through your work for ‘suddenly’ and ‘before’. You can use the ‘find’ feature to help you locate them.

Let’s start with ‘suddenly’. How do you use suddenly? Are you using it to modify a not so exciting or weak verb? Are you tapping your reader on the shoulder and saying, ‘hey, this is where things get exciting’ instead of letting the action build and explode before their very eyes?

To borrow an example from rsmellette over on AQ, which is stronger?

“Suddenly the room was full of bullies.” Or “Bullies crashed into the room.”

Which is going to move the pace of your story and get your reader on edge? Is ‘suddenly’ going to surprise them, or is the action happening before you eyes going to do it?

In most cases, writers find that they can cut ‘suddenly’ and make their sentences stronger and more compelling. Give it a whirl. How many can you cut?

Today’s other action tip came in yesterday from my brilliant critique partner and deals with ‘before’. As she puts it: “You might search for the word “before” and rewrite the sentences where you use it in the middle of an action. It seems like you write “He stood before walking to the door” when you could just say, “He stood and walked to the door.” Good call, eh? In my 30 pages I had a whopping 21 uses of ‘before’. That’s just wrong, wrong, wrong. Simply the action.

Go forth and simply my writer friends. You can do it.

Enjoy!