The Was Word

Look at your last book and count the number of times you used is, are, was, and were. Thoughts? Lessons learned?

Brenda

This question looks innocuous on the surface, but it brings up a writing no-no. Overuse of the little 'is' verb in all its tenses. It's a non-action, boring word and often overused. A writing pit we often fall into.

I'm always aware when writing not to overuse the passive voice (which uses the was word). For example: "The pie was eaten by us," is passive while, "We ate the pie" is active. In other words, the subject is doing the action not having the action done to it.

The conundrum for me is that when writing in the past tense, there will always be a lot of was and were required. "She was dressed in a sheepskin coat and knee-high boots." The 'was' is needed to put the active verb into the past tense.

And then, sometimes, it's more fitting to say, "She was a nurse at the Ottawa Hospital," instead of "She graduated with a nursing degree and held down a full-time position at the Ottawa Hospital". Sometimes concise works better, but this depends on the context, the importance placed on the information, and the surrounding text.

On another note, I've noted in my writing of late is the repetition of action verbs. After rereading an entire manuscript, I noticed that I'd used the verb 'strode' several times. Strode (stride, striding) does provide an image of someone walking briskly or with purpose, but it's difficult to find another one-word verb synonym. Still, it's easy to overuse a verb or any word for that matter. Sometimes, 'was' or 'were' is all that's required so as not to become too over the top. But I digress.

This week's question asks what I've learned about the use of was. I would say that writing requires all word usage in balance. It's not always wrong to write something in the passive voice, but you should be aware of when and why you're choosing to use it. I also believe that too many action verbs can detract from a story and 'was' or 'were' can be a welcome break.

As an aside, I also recall some advice about selecting a more obscure word that will stand out in a reader's mind and only using said word once in a story. The same would go with an image or phrase. For example if I wrote, "He bolted down his meal," I would not use the verb 'bolted again and definitely wouldn't have him or another character bolt down another meal.

The book should work as a whole and not have any words to jar the reader out of the story. Writing a novel or any piece of text is a balancing act with a final product that should appear to flow effortlessly without showing all the work that goes on behind the scenes.

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