Filter Words and an Announcement

Welcome!

Today, I wanted to talk a little about "filter words." Now, if you know what those are already... you're awesome. I had no idea until I got my manuscript thrashed for them. Since then, I've learned they are one of the most important things you can do to both strengthen and tighten down your writing.

Consider these examples:

• "Adam looked around the room and saw something shiny in the corner—he wasn't sure what it was. Beyond that, there were three pieces of furniture in the room, all of which were overstuffed and comfortable.

Now, I realize this isn't the best writing in the world, but we're here for examples. At the beginning of the paragraph, the verb "looked" is one of the worst offenders, and the rest of the paragraph is basically just telling the reader (as opposed to showing; I'll get to that in a future post) what is in the room. Let's take out the telling words and the filter words so we can get a better feel for what the character is actually experiencing.

• There was something shiny in the far corner, and the three pieces of furniture in the room. The room was the type of place where one could sit in the overstuffed sofa and chairs and let the world melt away.

Again, this isn't a very good example of writing, but you get the point. The second didn't hit us with the "looked" verb, which only serves to distance the reader from what the character is experiencing in the moment. 

Here's an exercise you can try—it's a mindfulness exercise that's common in treating anxiety and depression. Go somewhere and focus on the moment. Like a Jedi. What are your hands feeling? What do you hear? What do you see (if you're keeping your eyes open)? What do you smell? Are you standing? Does something hurt?

If you do this exercise, odds are you're not going to think "I'm looking at the horizon and it's beautiful." That removes you from yourself, if that makes sense. It's like you're narrating your own thoughts. Rather, you'll probably think something like "That horizon is beautiful." You wouldn't think "I'm tasting the pizza I had for lunch." You'd probably think something like, "Man, that pizza I had for lunch was awesome. I can still taste it!"

Ultimately, you're replacing words like looked, saw, heard, felt, seemed and tasted with stronger words and phrasing, using state verbs like is or was. In the second example, you can get a much stronger feel for what the room is like simply by the fact that there are more concrete examples, facilitated by removing those weaker filter words.

Anyway, that's been my experience over the last few weeks of getting my work butchered. It's an awesome experience.

And now for an announcement! As some of you may know, I'm a huge Star Wars fan, as well as a board/card game nerd. I've recently gotten a few more games for my collection, and am now considering adding game reviews to the blog along with the book reviews I do. I still haven't made a final decision on that, but if anyone wants to weigh in on that with an opinion, please do. If you'd rather get more posts like this one, I can do that, but if you want stuff like game and Star Wars reviews, I can add those in as well.

Anyway, thanks for wreading!

Jeff