I am currently taking AP literature and studied Creative Writing last year, both with the same teacher. Every paper she assigns, no matter what the content, will have the same rule: Limit your being verbs to five a page. At first, this was really hard, because those being verbs crop up everywhere. Then I realized: the less being verbs you had, the more “showing” you had, rather than “telling”.
So what’s a being verb? Here’s a list:
Am
Is
Are
Was
Were
Being
Been
Ben
Has
Had
Have
Do
Does
Did
Very common words, are they not? Try writing something without using one of those verbs; it’s super hard. My goal in this lesson isn’t to say never to use these words; I am telling you to limit your use of them. Take a look at some books and count the being verbs—there’s not going to be that many. A notable book, for me at least, is Virals by Kathy Reichs. She’s the same woman who penned the series that would go on to become the TV show Bones. I just ran a quick count, and I found that every page had less than five being verbs per page. Kathy Reichs claims to have a very strict editor.
You don’t have to go that extreme—being verbs are an important part of the English language, and are often used to convey exposition (more on exposition later). What you should be concerned with is making sure they don’t go out of hand. If the readers need to know that Hermione is smart, show her doing something smart! Show her figuring out a code or riddle, figuring out a complicated spell, solving problems, catching someone in a lie. And for love’s sakes, don’t convey it by having someone say “Gee, that Hermione is smart!” and leave it at that.
It all comes back to the first lesson: show, don’t tell.
~☼Writing time!☼~
Write a short story with only five being verbs per page. It can be about anything, and you don't have to show it to anyone. Just get in the practice of relying on being verbs to tell a story.
Thanks for reading! Comment below or fan to get more in this series. I’m probably going to do a few more lessons on “Show, don’t tell” before moving on. If you have any ideas for an article, please let me know!
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Non-FictionA simple, easy to understand tool to help improve your writing. This is more aimed towards those who want to make something of themselves by writing, rather than a just how-to write on Wattpad. Note: This was originally published in 2013.
