Breaking Writing Rules Right: Don't Use Filter Words
In the writing world, filter words are often considered problematic, and for good reason. You may have been told to cut back on them in your story, or you may have been told to cut all of them. But sometimes filter words are actually the best choice.
Today I’m going to talk about what filter words are, why people discourage them, and five reasons you should break the rule and use them.
“Filter words” are words that filter us through the character. They are phrases such as:
While not as well known as some of the other writing rules (“Show, don’t tell,” “Don’t use ‘was’”),if you look around in the writing world, you’ll see there is no shortage of sources that say we shouldn’t use filter words.
At first glance, phrases like, “He looked,” seem rather innocent.
But they are weak for a few reasons.
1. They put the character between the audience and the story.
On my blog, I’ve talked several times about how it’s important for the audience to experience the story for themselves, instead of just reading about the events that happened. Only when the audience is invested and experiencing the story will the story reach its full breadth of power. (There are some stories that are exceptions of course, but they are rare.)
Filter words distance the audience just a little bit. There is a degree between them and what’s happening in the story.
When we want the audience to feel as if they are in the story, we want them to get as close and as invested in what’s unfolding as possible.
Often filter words don’t communicate anything new in the story and can just be cut.
Aiden saw a beetle climbing up the mulberry tree.
The phrase “Aiden saw” is taking up space and can simply be cut.
A beetle climbed up the mulberry tree.
Unless you are writing from what I call “guided omniscient” or “first-person omniscient,” (and sometimes even then, depending on how the narrator handles it), the fact that the sentence is even on the page implies that at least the viewpoint character of that scene saw it, if not other characters.
Say that Aiden is our viewpoint character for this scene. The fact that a beetle is mentioned at all automatically suggests that Aiden saw it, because the audience knows (if only subconsciously) that we are experiencing the story from Aiden’s view.
So to say that Aiden saw the beetle is redundant and unnecessary.
If Aiden isn’t the viewpoint character, but someone with the viewpoint character, we can still imply that he also saw it. Here is one way:
A beetle climbed up the mulberry tree.
“Woah!” Aiden said, drawing closer to the trunk. “Come look!”
Dani didn’t budge. The last thing I’m going to do is get close to a bug, she thought.
In this example, Dani is the viewpoint character, but we can clearly tell Aiden saw the beetle too.
However, I should explain that since here Aiden isn’t the viewpoint character, those phrases probably aren’t technically filter words, because we are seeing the scene from Dani’s viewpoint, so we can’t be filtering through Aiden. So if I wrote this:
A beetle climbed up the mulberry tree.
Dani didn’t budge.Where do those bugs keep coming from? she wondered.
I’m not sure I could agree we are “filtering” through Aiden, but it’s still a phrase you might get some flack for, even though here it’s communicating that Dani saw that Aiden was staring. So some people might still have a problems with it and argue against it on your manuscript.
Filter phrases can kill your writing quick if you use them all the time, mainly because they are weak verbs.
Marley went out back and saw the forest. He saw it was right up close to the hotel. He looked deep into the trees and saw a squirrel. He could hear a bird singing. He felt a cool breeze on his neck. A strange noise sounded to his left, and he looked to find a man sitting on a stump. Marley wondered how long he’d been there.
Do you see all those filter words? All those verbs are pretty bland and weak. You should use stronger verbs to make the story come alive.
(Hopefully you also see that all those filter words actually distance the audience, at least a little bit.)
Sometimes filter words can simply be cut, like I showed with Aiden. Other times getting rid of them takes more effort.
When you’re a beginner, it’s a lot harder to write without them, because, darn it, “saw,” “looked,” “smelled,” “touched,” are all verbs! And if you don’t use those, well, crap, you have to find a way to get a different verb in that sentence to make it complete!
This is usually the part where the more experienced writer comes in and explains how the beginning writer needs to use more “strong verbs”–verbs that are more specific and powerful. Filter words are considered to be “weak verbs.”
I still remember the first assignment back in college where I committed myself to stretching and reaching and using only strong verbs.
I was soooo slow. I looked up so many words. It was so hard. And even after that assignment, I was still at a snail’s pace. I started to think it would always be like that.
- Establish and remind the audience who the viewpoint character is (third-person with multiple viewpoints)
Some people will probably disagree with me on this, but sometimes a nicely placed filter phrase is the best way to tell or remind the audience who the viewpoint character is. It’s simple and straightforward.
If you are writing in third-person and have multiple viewpoint characters, when you start a new scene with a new viewpoint character, you’ve got to alert the audience to it quick.
Usually the first viewpoint character name to show up in the scene is the one the reader first assumes is the viewpoint.
Sure, there are a few ways you can do this.
For example, you could do it with an action:
Tiffany slammed her bedroom door.
But for some scene openings, the focus isn’t what the character is doing, it’s what the character is witnessing or feeling–that’s what’s important.
In the novel I’m perpetually working on, I open a scene with the viewpoint watching someone else. If I’m not using filter words, I’m going to be describing what someone–who is not the viewpoint character–is doing, and the reader is either going to get confused, assuming that person is the viewpoint character, or they are going to feel “ungrounded” and unsure how to view or interpret what they are reading.
