Writing well is not easy. It involves breaking out of linguistic molds that formal education and our own minds have imposed.

I’ve been absorbed in improving my writing since I’m in the process of creating a first draft for a novel that I’ve wanted to make for who knows how long.

It’s been difficult. I’m realizing that I’ve developed a slew of bad habits over time that I wasn’t aware of - that I wasn’t noticing because I didn’t know what to look for. Scrutinization of my writing has now become commonplace; I edit my stream-of-consciousness several times before putting it out.

I look back at some things that I’ve written and I smile in embarrassment. I’m at the point where I’m questioning the purpose of single words in sentences and if the relationship they share with the other words feels correct. It’s sometimes maddening, but if I want to get better, then I will let this neuroticism take its course.

The content in fiction is occasionally strange and abstract, especially in the realms of fantasy and sci-fi. I realize that it’s imperative that my writing is clear, concise, and fine-tuned if I am to stand any chance of it being readable and accessible to an audience.

The most important goal is that my ideas, plot, characters, and overarching theme come through, glowing and unburdened by poorly written or overly verbose prose. Perhaps there is something to be said about avant-garde and experimental writing, where the prose itself is a puzzle and the foremost purpose in its existence. That won’t be in my first novel though. Creating hundreds of pages of something coherent and engaging is difficult enough.

There have been two books in particular that have changed the way I think about writing to an extraordinary degree.

  • Several Short Sentences About Writing by Klinkenborg
  • On Writing by King

Reading these books has been nothing short of an awakening.

As I’ve reflected on my own writing and the sentences that I read on a daily basis, I’ve realized how much “fluff” makes its way in. I’m talking about words that do not serve a clear purpose, and I’d argue, do not add to the tone or style of prose in any meaningful or fulfilling way.

Filler words. Extraneity.

There are a variety of reasons for why this is, and I can’t help but speculate.

You don’t have to look very far to see examples of this phenomenon in action. Take a stop by your local news.ycombinator.com thread, where programmers spend hours arguing over minutia that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of life.

I stumbled across this one written in 2015 during an internet search today. The title is, some functional programmers are arrogant. Funny.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a good nit-picky programmer argument thread. This time around, I focused on the writing instead of the arguments, since that’s what I’ve been conditioning myself to do for the past few months, and my mouth was agape at the absurdity of the sentence structures and choice of words.

I’m uncomfortable because I used to write like this too, and I know exactly what was going through my head when I was doing so. Not to project, but I have a good grasp of how these people are thinking when they write.

This is not so much a criticism of these forum users as it is a detailed reminder to constantly be wary of writing like this so I do not make the same mistakes in my work.

Let’s take a look at some very commonly used words that I see as unnecessary, and the reason why I think they are used. These words are not from a single person - they are from a variety of individuals who have absorbed the acceptable way to talk on a forum like this, thereby sounding the same as each other, eerily congruent to places like Reddit.

  • simply - Often appears in text where people are talking about subjects that are not simple and trivial, but they use this word to relegate a point or idea as lesser because they think they understand it better than the person they are talking to. Unnecessary fluff that adds the famous edge of pomposity and pedantry.
  • merely - Seems to also be used to add unnecessary dramatization of the relegation of an idea or point. In their eyes, something is so trivial as to be referred to as “mere,” and instead of leaving this self-evident in the strength of an argument or clear description, they have to add in this fluff.
  • the fact that - I have used this way too many times and I try to avoid it at all costs now, because anyone that argues on the internet seems to use it, and it adds verbosity. It’s a sign that your ideas can be expressed more clearly and in a more creative format.
  • similarly - Not necessary. A “linking” word that assumes your reader is too stupid to identify that point that is about to be made shares similarities with the previously expressed point.
  • however - Another conceptual “linking” word. This time around, it assumes that your reader is too stupid to grasp that the information you are about to read stands in opposition to the previously read information. Come on, have some respect for the reader.
  • lack of - There are better words that don’t require two words. This is overused.
  • certainly/certainly not - When someone overuses this word or combination of words, they are almost certainly definitely not certain about what they’re saying.
  • as far as I can tell - Several words used to indicate that you are either not confident, have not done enough research and thinking, or both. Also used to deflect the blame from being incorrect (I said as far as I can tell and didn’t state it as a fact!).
  • firstly, secondly, … - No need to label your points linguistically when it can be done in a bullet point list if you want to go that direction. It doesn’t help that people fail to keep track of their labels either, saying “firstly,” missing a “secondly” and a few disjointed paragraphs later, ending with “finally” or “ultimately.”
  • ultimately - Instead of making a point and letting your argument speak for itself, this is used to signify an overarching conclusion that you feel you cannot express otherwise. I’ve used it more times than I can count, and I now see it as overly dramatic, and again, not necessary.
  • completely - Something can be complete, and at times it is appropriate to use this word. On this thread and others like it, it’s used like this instead: “completely false.” What is the difference between false and completely false? As far as I can tell, true and false are binary. The writer probably knows this and is being mindlessly dramatic with their argument. Here’s another example: “…completely forgetting that fully-verifiable…” Again, is there a difference between forgetting something and completely forgetting it? It’s a dramatization, almost a parody now, used in threads to make the person they are talking to appear stupid, unable to grasp the obvious and important.
  • of course - Of course! How it’s typically used reminds me of advanced proof-based mathematics textbooks where the writer would compose a monstrous, several page long proof, referring to a multitude of assumptions and axioms as “trivial” when the average college student would have no clue what they were on about.
  • actually - AKA, Ackchyually. Do I even need to explain this one?

Are these sounding familiar?

Let’s take a look at some counts for a handful of them.

“Simply” appeared 8 times. “Actually” appeared 32 times, “merely” appeared 5 times, “certainly” appeared 10 times. “Of course” appeared 24 times. “Completely” appeared 25 times. “However” appeared 16 times.

You’d think since these words appeared so many times, they are essential to creating meaning in a sentence, much like the words “the” and “is,” right? They are anything but essential.

I’m not going to run an analysis, but I’m genuinely curious as to what percentage of this thread contains text that is essential for expressing ideas and logic, and what percentage is extraneous garbage that obfuscates the person’s muddled ideas and knowledge.

As far as I’m concerned, they are roadblocks in a sentence. I mean, just look at this excerpt from the thread.

“I have some personal chips on the idea that these two goals actually will wind up in the same place more-or-less”

Huh? What is the purpose of saying “actually” here? And what is the purpose of “more or less?” Does it modify “will wind up in the same place” in any meaningful way? Let’s change some things to not sound like we’ve spent our entire life on the fence of our intellectual ivory tower about every opinion we’ve harbored.

“I think these two goals will wind up in the same place.”

There, now we can get on with our lives.

The people who write like this would love to appear knowledgeable, wise, well-reasoned, and intelligent. It’s very likely that their self worth depends on it to an extent. We all have something that fuels our self worth, though. It’s only a question of whether or not that source of fuel is beneficial and sustainable.

Do these words serve any stylistic purpose? Do they set the tone? I don’t think so unless you consider “tech nerd who spends too much time on the internet” a style that we should strive for. It’s too condescending to make your reader listen and understand.

It’s a style of intellectual arrogance, dramatism, and absolutes that, ironically enough, sounds insecure and uncertain.

If they dissimulate ideas and logic and they do not enhance the style or tone of the prose, then why do these words exist?

To me, the only reason they are there is to remind myself that they shouldn’t be there in my writing.

I avoid these discussions now, except in cases like these where there is something to be learned from the chaos. It’s also interesting to see the phenomenon of people who spend a lot of time in a given internet community start to think and write like each other, with the same logic and word choices.

The text that we consume is the text that shapes our perception, and I will have none of it.