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Eight Ways to Tighten Your Prose

1. Write first, edit later.
Get your words onto the page before worrying about how to re-
work your prose. Let your creativity flow and allow yourself to
make mistakes. Grammar, word choices, tepid descriptions-none
of it matters in the first, or even the second, draft.

2. Remove or change words that end in -ly or -ing.
Adverbs and participles give writers excuses not to write well.

Slipping in an adverb or misusing a participle weakens prose.
Examples:

A. The lovely lady angrily slapped the badly dressed police
officer.
B. The woman slapped the disheveled police officer.

A. She agreed to the divorce, wanting to end her rotten
marriage.
B. She wanted to end her rotten marriage, so she agreed to the
divorce.

3. Remove dialogue tags.
Most dialogue tags are unnecessary, particularly when two
characters are speaking. "Said" is the best word to use in a
tag (avoid adding an adverb to it!) because it's considered
an "invisible" word-the reader's eyes go right over it. Avoid
using words like barked, growled, hissed, and so forth.
Characters should not sigh or laugh their words nor should they
speak through "gritted teeth." Insert actions/internal thoughts
to break up dialogue. Example:

"Get out, Nick!" she shouted angrily.
"No, Karen," he said quietly.
"Leave me alone," she hissed.
"Not until you tell me the truth, Karen," he said through
gritted teeth. "Do you love me?"
"I never loved you," she sighed.
"I don't believe you," he growled.
"Then believe this, Nick," she laughed, "I'm engaged to someone
else."

"Get out!" Karen shouted.
He crossed his arms. "No."
"Leave me alone, Nick."
"Not until you tell me the truth." He grasped her chin and
forced her to look at him. "Do you love me?"
Tears trembled on her lashes. "I never loved you."
"I don't believe you."
"Then believe this." She raised her left hand. A diamond ring
glittered in the sunlight. "I'm engaged to someone else."

4. Take out qualifiers.
Delete rather, very, little, pretty from your work. According
to Strunk and White in The Elements of Style, "...these are the
leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of
words."

5. Use definite, specific, concrete language.
"Prefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague,
the concrete to the abstract." ~~ The Elements of Style.
Example (also taken from The Elements of Style):

A. He showed satisfaction as he took possession of his well-
earned reward.
B. He grinned as he pocketed the coin.

6. Write positive statements.
From The Elements of Style, "Put statements in

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