Ernest Hemingway was known for his spare prose, meaning he wasn’t one to embellish or over describe. As writers, we too must strive to be more precise in both our word choices and the amount of supporting material we add to our pieces.
Writing Tip for Today: Here are a few tips to help you practice precision in your writing:
Word Choice Matters
A basic way to tighten your writing is by choosing more specific words. Verbs, especially, can help you pinpoint what you wish your readers to imagine. Concentrate on using as many active verbs as possible. Verbs of being (is, are, was, were) are general. Readers must sift through many possible meanings to arrive at a clear picture.
Action verbs, on the other hand, lend a quick and precise quality. Readers can imagine specific actions quickly, speeding up the perceived time and lending tension and urgency. If you write that she “put” a set of keys on a table, we lack the information about the character’s attitude. If you write, “she tossed the keys,” “hurled the keys” or “chucked the keys,” readers will imagine three different motions and emotions.
By eliminating gerunds (is/are ing combos), you can also tighten the prose. These constructions denote an ongoing condition or action. If you mean to convey a one-time action, delete the is ing and simply use the verb in present or past tense. Thus, she was sprinting to catch her ride becomes a simple “she sprinted to catch the ride.”
Description Precision
Modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) also can dull your prose. When you throw readers too many descriptors or word pictures all at once, they may have problems deciding which parts are the most important. Their word picture becomes scrambled by competing images. A precise noun can often replace modifiers and clean up the reader experience. A sports car with a fiberglass body might be better stated as a Corvette. Any modifier you add should lend more precision—say a red or a ’64 Vette.
Directional words can also gum up the prose. When you use prepositions, try to limit the number of phrases. Your readers must try to follow all these directional cues, so only write the ones that are necessary. If you write, “She went under the freeway and over to the homeless camp in the poor part of town, out of the way, for the purpose of bringing folks a sandwich,” readers must navigate an obstacle course of these highlighted words. Better to write, “She visited the homeless camp under the freeway overpass and handed out sandwiches.”
Sizes and directions can often make it hard to imagine a scene. Instead of writing, “her right” or “his left,” just write “she stepped to one side.” If you’re trying to describe an object, avoid using actual measurements—they stop readers as they imagine the size that six and a half inches might be. Try to instead compare the object to a well-known object: Her purse was the size of a ham sandwich.
Use specific nouns and verbs to paint a word picture.
Poetry Precision
Another way to practice writing with precision is to try your hand at poetry. Poetry demands concise language to produce meaning and emotions. Read good poetry and try writing some poems. You don’t have to write sonnets or even rhyming verse. Write a short free verse poem or haiku that is loaded with specific words.
If poetry isn’t your thing, you could take out a scene you wrote and highlight only the necessary words to get the scene’s purpose, goal conflict and resolution across. Or use a published piece and try to identify which words concisely address the overall meaning.
Writing with precision takes practice. When you draft a piece, let it all hang out. Wait a period and then go back and revise, deleting unnecessary words, repetitive phrases or sentences and tangential rabbit holes you may have gone into. You might not be Hemingway, but all writers can benefit from practice for precision.
Do you have trouble killing your darlings? Examine them with the above precision test in mind.
