Every single writer has a cliché of his own, and some clichés are unavoidable and when used well, quite funny actually and a great material for satire as our excellent book reviewer Ashleigh Bonner mentions on the EPIC and first Edition of our E-mag for this year, available for Free here, but there’s one cliché that many writers do that doesn’t help much when it comes to reading. Personal Pronouns.
Yes. Personal pronouns are needed, essential even when it comes to writing. I mean, how could one write a book without them, right? Or … can one?
As good as they are, when overused they create a very nasty problem: they slow down the pace of reading by “restarting” the reading process.
“Restarting? How?!”
It’s simple. Every time you use a personal pronoun, the reader’s attention spikes, because we try to make the connection to who, or what, in this particular scene the pronoun is referring to.
Imagine an action scene, that is intended to be fluid and fast-paced, but the scene is written like this: “He kicked, he dodged, he felt the pain on his back. She threw her punch, she looked at him screaming, she landed, she jumped in the air, she kicked, she….” . Our question is simple: was it fluid? Why?
Would it improve if you took out the personal pronouns? How much?
No matter how good your book is, it doesn’t matter how amazing is the story, if you don’t let the reader read and move on through the story, guess what? Readers won’t finish it.
It’s your job as the writer of the story to tell the story, but above all, to make it as easy to read and understand as possible for your readers, or your editor, here’s a list of cool editors that will help you.
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