hey, friendly editor-writer gremlin stopping by to remind you all that in creative writing, every aspect of language is a tool. You can’t throw things out of the toolbox, because you never know what you’ll need for a specific situation or task!
Some tools are general purpose, like grammar, punctuation and sentence structure – you use them all the time, except in very rare circumstances where building a passage without those tools would make a statement, or convey meaning in a certain way. Some, like passive voice or adverbs, only come out every now and again. The trick is knowing how and when to use which tools. (Which is why I vastly prefer to think of various writing techniques and language components as tools instead of rules).
Lots of advice tells you to dispense with words like “wondered”, “thought”, “felt” because they are passive – they put a barrier between the reader and the narration. But! What about when you want to create a barrier? i.e.,
How was that fair, he wondered. \ he wondered how that could be fair.
This feels distant, contemplative. Perhaps a character is pondering the fairness of something, but they’re not quite emotionally invested (yet). Perhaps they don’t want to think too deeply or look too hard at an issue, and so they’re keeping a degree of emotional distance.
How was that fair?
A direct question – the character is asking themself and the reader to consider the implications of something.
It wasn’t fair.
A statement. This is what the character feels; this is, for better or worse, their opinion of the matter at that moment in time.
Another common example is adverbs: “don’t use adverbs! use a stronger verb! say ‘whispered’ instead of ‘said quiety’!” etc etc. But whether you use a “stronger” verb, or add on an adverb, is (again) a matter of picking the correct tool for the job. Sometimes you need to use a mallet instead of a hammer, even though both seem functionally similar; and sometimes either tool will suffice.
“Hey,” she whispered.
The word “whisper” in itself doesn’t have a lot of emotion attached to it. It’s just a thing you do if you need to be quiet for whatever reason.
“Hey,” she said softly.
“softly”, however, does have emotional connotations. There’s tenderness here, or at least gentleness. Using an adverb adds a whole other layer of meaning, which is great when you’re crafting emotionally heavy scenes.
Compare this to:
“Hey,” she whispered softly
which is a tautology. Whispering is soft (usually). You only need to describe how someone whispers if they break convention, and in that case you could also pick a different verb – that’s very much a stylistic choice on your part, as the writer, and depends on what sort of atmosphere or meaning you want to convey. Like this:
“Hey,” she hissed \ “Hey,” she whispered sharply
In this case, “hissed” and “whispered sharply” could be used interchangeably, but they could also be used separately, depending on the writer’s requirements for that scene. Both convey urgency, but there are subtle differences in what sort of urgency it is. “sharply” has connotations of severity, chiding, or a short temper; “hissed” feels slightly more desperate, although it could also be read as angry, based on what else happens in the passage.
I could go on, but I’m low on spoons and still need to hit my word count for today. Basically, the tools you use are very important and you shouldn’t take any of them for granted or dismiss them out of hand, and if someone tells you that you should, don’t let them get to you.
