When I found myself unable to find a relevant topic for this
week’s blog post and decided now was the time to write about nothing in
particular did this, rather clever, topic hit me squarely between the eyes. See
what I did there? No? Look again. Still not sure? Then this week I’m talking
about the dos and don’ts of fillers. Naturally we will start with the question
of what is a filler, what is its use and the pros and cons of using them, when
and where. Let’s do this.
Fillers –
are words or phrases inserted into a sentence which have no use other than to
make the sentence flowery, or add a little more detail. They are much more
common in full length novels and older works, but you will rarely see them in
fast-paced novellas or thrillers.
Fillers are used in a whole
variety of ways to give your reader time to immerse themselves in your scene
from more than just the passer by point of view. Even in language we use terms,
such as ‘like’, and ‘y’know’, all used in a way that does not convey their inherent
meaning; but these examples only apply to oral language, great for when you
want to write speech, but not literature around it.
In a simple sentence you may
often see a filler in between two commas, for example ‘Mike’s ball, which was
red, flew out of the park with a single swing of his leg’. The filler here
being ‘which was red’ it isn’t essential to our understanding of events, but
also ‘single’ it was not essential to the clause either. For those who have studied English at a
higher level, it’s all a case of –spot that non-essential clause.
Moving on, we now know what a
filler is and why we use it, now when and how to use them, that is their pros
and cons are our next focus. Fillers are really useful in chapters where you,
as the writer, want to slow down the pace of the story and give the reader time
to catch up with evens and deliver some more complex information. The idea of
sentences including fillers is, that they are rarely contained to what we call
‘simple sentences’ that is a sentence with one verb and one noun, not strictly
true, but it’s less common.
If
you want to write good action, or good horror, that leaves the reader reeling
from every blow you inflict, and each limb you sever, you must remember the
golden rule of these genres and scenes. Simple sentences win. Your aim in these
scenes is to contain any action to a simple sentence for maximum speed and
impact, that way you are able to reflect on events later in each gruesome
detail; we will talk more about these genres another time.
Final note on this topic, do not
abuse the filler, and avoid overuse like the plague. Common filler errors;
unless you write in an older style, eliminate 90% of the words like, seemed and
was. If it is like something, then show it, nothing ‘seems’ like something, it
is or it is not! And was is too passive, make things active. More on some of
these again another day
Until next time; read, write live.
My usual hideaways
Hmmm..
ReplyDeleteDidn't we have this discussion earlier this week?
Nicely written, and with the perfect amount of fill.
We may have done, may have subconsciously came out while I was desperately searching for a topic to write about.
ReplyDelete