I want to talk very briefly about “that”. No, I’m not talking about something dirty I can’t say so I have to use the word “that”. I’m actually talking about the word “that”. I remember when beta reading for some writers, I had to point out the overuse of the word “that”. I’ve finished proofing Vampires’ Curse to get ready for print, and OH MY STARS! Could I have used “that” any more times? Grrrrr. Now there were a few instances where it made sense to use it for clarification, but most of the time it sounded clunky and made the sentence NOT flow as it should. Most of the time, we don’t need that word. I did notice, since this is a compilation of three novellas, I used it fewer times in the third novella and used it most in the first one. So that means I was getting better at catching it. I even use it in my blog posts sometimes when I don’t need to. I think it goes back to English class or something, because there’s some reason my fingers want to type that word. And it’s perfectly proper and acceptable in every place I used it, but it wasn’t NECESSARY. So for this current WIP, although I know I caught most of them, I’m going to do a “find” on the word document for the word “that”. I wonder how many I’ll find that I don’t need? (I think the previous sentence needed the “that”, LOL.)
How about you? Do you use “that” more often that you need to?
lauralynnelliott.com 