About Expletives

by Bobbie Christmas

For some reason I’m seeing more expletives than ever in the manuscripts I edit, so rather than a Q & A today, I’m going to address expletives in general.

Most of us know that obscenities such as “damn,” “bugger,” and “bitch” are expletives as well as some scatological words such as “shit” and “piss.” What some writers may not be aware of, though, is that expletives by definition are any—and I mean any—syllable, word, or phrase that fills a vacancy and doesn’t add to the sense of a sentence. Even writers who avoid obscenities in their work still fill their work with “empty words” that add nothing to the meaning of a sentence. Strong writers know how to write tight, and if a scene, paragraph, sentence, or word can be deleted, they delete it. Tight writing makes prose powerful.

What, then, am I talking about here?

Well, here goes. First off, I see “well” everywhere in manuscripts I edit. The word seems natural in dialogue; we use it all the time. Unless it refers to a hole in the ground for water or the condition of someone’s health, though, it’s a good chance it’s an expletive that can be deleted. The word seems harmless, but if you search your manuscript and see the word “well” show up more than four times in fifty thousand words, you’ve probably used it as an expletive. Delete it.

So, the next word is “so.” You’d be amazed at how often dialogue begins with the word “so,” especially when a character asks a question. Example: “So, when are we going to get together?” At the start of dialogue, “so” is often an expletive that can be deleted and the sentence will be equally as meaningful: “When are we going to get together?”

Often the word “so” is not an expletive, but many uses are adverbs that can be deleted. For example, when “so” is used to mean “very,” delete it and the writing is tighter. “So” can also be used to mean also, thus, then, indeed, surely, and therefore. In the interest in reducing repetition, then, search your manuscripts for the use of the word “so” and delete as many as possible to avoid overusing it.

You know, another expletive I see in dialogue all the time is “you know.” Yes, at times it’s used correctly, as in this example: “You know class starts at six o’clock. Why are you late every time?” Used as an expletive, however, it often shows up in dialogue like in these examples: “I have a class at six o’clock, you know, so I’ve got to leave.” “You know, you and I have been married seven years.” In addition to being superfluous, many times “you know” can be ambiguous and misinterpreted as literal. “You know, the knife had John’s blood on it” can be interpreted to mean that the person being directed did know that fact. For many reasons, then, search for “you know” in the dialogue of your characters and delete it whenever it isn’t intended literally. The result is tighter, stronger writing and less repetition.

Well, you know, so I’ve been overwhelmed with the volume of empty words—expletives—I see in manuscripts I edit these days. I hope this brief column will help you find and remove as many expletives as possible from your manuscripts.

Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com. Read more Ask the Book Doctor questions and answers at www.zebraeditor.com.