Okay, so yesterday I blogged about my overuse of the word sigh. I was worried that I if I didn’t say my character sighed, then my readers wouldn’t understand how irritated she was. But if I kept my character sighing every five minutes, then I would be cheating my readers.
For instance, when I wanted to try a new hair product on a client, I could give them a list of ingredients and tell them how great the product would be for their hair. “Try this smoothing serum. It has silicone in it, which will make your hair cuticles lay flat and prevent frizzing.” Boring right?
But if I put a few drops of serum in their hair and let them feel the difference it made–more shine, less frizz, noticeable softness–they were sold. They would buy the product because they could see how it worked.
Writing is the same thing. We need to show our readers what we’re talking about so they feel it. If we can’t grab their emotions, then we’re not doing our job as writers. They won’t connect with the characters and eventually they will do what every writer fears–they will put our book down.
So here’s what I did to show that my character was irritated. I used her body language to show that she was upset. I would have her drum her nails on a table, or scratch her head. Sometimes I would use italics to put emphasis on certain words. Instead of, “I said I would take you to the store.” I changed it to, “I said I would take you to the store.” Little things like that made a big difference in my manuscript and I could stop using the word sigh as a crutch. Don’t get me wrong, I still use it–but only as a last resort. Do you have any words or expressions that you wear out in your writing?
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