Anne H. Janzer's Blog

Relating to the reader

A Writing Voice exercise

You wouldn’t use your most professional, formal voice when speaking to a six-year-old, would you? Or your grandmother? (I hope not!)

We automatically shift our speaking voice based on our relationship with the listener.

We should make a similar shift when writing. We choose our words based on the imagined relationship with the reader. That simple choice affects how the reader perceives the “voice” of the piece.

When writers forget about the reader altogether, the writing voice can seem boring, self-indulgent, or out-of-touch. (We’ve all experienced reading something like that, right?)

If you want to tweak your writing voice, reconsider your relationship with the reader.

Explore the extremes

The easiest way to identify your desired relationship might be looking at its opposite. Which of these extremes seems right?

Expert/all-knowing vs. companionable/unassumingFormal vs. casualSkeptical vs. trusting

For example, this post offers advice. If I were to adopt the position of an expert in relation to you, I might write this:

I’m going to tell you the best way to work on your writing voice. This is what you do:

Or, I could honor your experience and position myself more as your companion. That might read like this:

Here’s an exercise I’ve found helpful in my own writing practice—maybe you’ll like it as well.

Which approach do you prefer? There’s no right answer. I often land between those extremes in my writing. I assume that you have experience writing, but would appreciate guidance and suggestions. If you’re still reading, then it seems like we’ve got the right relationship.

The exercise

This month, I invite you to experiment with assuming the “wrong” relationship for the situation. Here are two quick options:

Write a note asking for a favor from someone you admire and respect but do not know personally. Make it informal and intimate, as if you were best friends. For example, if you’re an author, write to Stephen King asking for an endorsement, in a flip and informal voice. (Note: don’t send it!) Write a formal, distant note turning down an invitation from a friend. (Definitely do not send this one!)

Notice the choices you make to be intimate or distant. Pay attention to what it feels like to write outside your comfort zone.

This exercise helps you home in on your assumed relationship with the reader. Does it tell you anything about your default writing styles?

The ongoing practice

When reading this month, notice the relationship that you sense the writer establishing with you. Do they respect your opinions or time? In fiction, is the narrator omniscient? Do they address you as the reader directly? How does it land with you?

When writing, be explicit about your intentions. For example, “I’m writing as the reader’s more experienced guide,” or “I’m trying to establish trust (or familiarity).”

More along this line

This practice is based on the tenth chapter of The Writer’s Voice (a workbook outlining a twelve-week course.) You can find variation of this exercise in a post from August 2023: Fancy or Folksy.

If you’d like to hear this one in my speaking voice, watch the YouTube video.

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Published on September 30, 2025 13:32

A Day’s Work

Sistine Chapel ceiling (image from GetStencil)

When a long writing project seems like a haul or you cannot find a consistent pace, imagine Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel.

In his lovely memoir All the Beauty in the World, Patrick Bringley tells us that each morning, Michelangelo’s helpers would put fresh plaster on one small section of the ceiling, which he would finish before it dried. The work day (a giornata in Italian) was determined both by the master’s speed and the plaster’s drying rate.

If you have the privilege to get up close to the Sistine Chapel, apparently you can spot the seams between daily sections painted centuries ago. You can trace the master’s work, day by day, and see how long each part took. God? Four giornata. Adam? Another four. The entire work? More than 370.

Painting with patience

Whether we’re creating a single, massive work or a lifelong creative practice, we’re always dancing with both time and energy. Long term success comes from showing up and putting in your day’s work.

It’s easy to forget that unglamorous reality in painting, writing, and all art. In writing, for example, the seams between the author’s days are rarely visible unless the author has chosen a “collection” or journal approach. Editing and revision erase the seams.

We may foolishly believe that we can choose the pace at which we want to proceed almost arbitrarily. We think of creativity as a faucet we can turn on full blast, at will.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard people say, “I’ll write the book in four weeks!” I’ve even had the same thought myself. Those plans made in haste rarely stick.

Like Michelangelo, most days you can only go so far before the plaster dries. (The plaster, in this analogy, is your ability to summon words on the topic not just on a single day but many days strung together. It’s your writing tank, your creative energy.)

You’ll have to figure out what a sustainable pact of work is for you, right now, based on your conditions and your project.

What’s your day’s work?

The true measure of a day’s work will vary with the work and the writer. One prolific full-time novelist might aim for 2,000 words a day, while another might build a lasting career with 500 words a day. A nonfiction writer might work toward weekly chapter goals, adjusting based on their life and their energy.

Your day’s work may change with your circumstances. In a busy period, perhaps your writing gets only 15 minutes a day to develop ideas or take the next, small step. When your time frees up, you can adjust it upward.

Respect the pace

I find this idea of a daily limit comforting. While our limits may vary, we all have them.

Don’t put fresh plaster on more than you can fill. Don’t rush the work you want to last. Take pride and pleasure in the good days, even if the area covered seems small.

Maintaining forward momentum is often our only option. Keep writing before the plaster dries.

Playing with presence on the page

How present are you, as the writer or narrator, in your writing?

Your answer likely varies depending on the context. Consider everyday writing:

Text messages? They’re usually personal.Work reports or marketing copy? You may try to disappear into a brand voice.

For other writing, you get to choose. Journalists often hide carefully behind the curtain of objectivity, while memoirists lean toward the confessional. When writing fiction, you pick the narrative voice and their degree of presence. And often we make those choices out of habit.

This month, I’m asking you to notice and experiment with your presence, as a writer or narrator, in your work. To get you started, here’s a fun exercise.

Step 1: Identify your default

Pick a piece that represents the writing you usually do. Now, on a scale of 1 to 10, assess your (or for fiction writers, your narrator’s) presence in the work, with 1 being entirely absent, and 10 being completely intrusive.

Got your number? Move on to the next step.

Step 2: Go for the extremes

Try rewriting the piece (or a part of it) with the dial turned to the opposite extreme. If you’re usually a 2 (mostly absent), dial it up to 10. If you write in the 7-8 range, try out extreme absence (1). And if you’re squarely in the middle, pick the extreme that feels the least comfortable or logical. (Feel free to embrace absurdity in this exercise.)

What does it feel like?

If you are uncomfortable being present in the work, do you see any benefits to showing up? Can you try to make it fun?

Conversely, if you are always sharing your own perspective, what happens when you try to dial it back? (Hint: see if you can shift the focus to the reader instead of yourself.)

Why this exercise matters

When I coach nonfiction authors, we often tweak the dial of presence one way or the other, because their habitual approach doesn’t always best serve the reader. Sometimes it makes sense to show up personally in the work, and other times authors do well to recede for a while and shine the light on others.

This exercise helps you do something similar on your own. By testing the extremes, you can see if you’ve been missing something. If nothing else, you’ll be more aware of the unconscious choices you make about presence.

Planning the writing expedition

Gear to prepare for hiking: compass, boots, vest, backpack. Image: Stencil

Did you know that I once hiked the Pacific Crest Trail? Don’t get too impressed — I only covered a few miles out and back, from an easy roadway access point in the Sierras.

Hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. Image: Anne Janzer

The distinction between my quick jaunt (with a light daypack and water) and the through-hikers around me was as vast as the views. You could safely say we were doing entirely different activities. If I’d tried to continue on the trail without a tent, food, lots of water, and a plan, it would not have turned out well.

How does this relate to writing?

I have known people to start writing a book as if they were throwing together a blog post or two, without a vision of their reader and their needs. Sometimes they end up with tens of thousands of words that don’t serve what the reader might need from the work. Restarting these projects can be painful.

When we write, we embark on a journey through ideas—ideally bringing a reader along with us. Depending on the journey, we need different levels of planning or preparation.

Stroll? Hike? Trek? Know your goal.

Strolling, day-hiking, and trekking all are forms of “walking” but the amount of effort, and necessary preparation, clearly vary. For fun, let’s match them to writing.

(Apologies to those of you in the UK. You might swap “rambling” for strolling and “walking” for hiking.)

Stroll: In a writing stroll, you explore your thoughts or survey the terrain. You might write in a journal, or in “zero drafts” or “inner research.” Poets may spend more time in this exploratory phase than, say, nonfiction writers. But rarely do we invite others along on our rambling without doing the work to make them welcome.

Hikes: A quick blog might be analogous to a short hike. You start with a known destination and purpose, with a few guideposts along the way. A longer post, report, or well-researched article might resemble a strenuous hike. And dealing with a dense or difficult subject is like covering tough terrain. You need to support the reader through the process, and make sure they end up in the right place.

Treks: You wouldn’t offer to guide a paying client on a multi-day wilderness trek without adequate preparation. Writing a book is like taking the reader on that trek. Even if you’re a “pantser” and improvise as you go, you’ll need to make sure the reader sticks with you to the end.

It’s easy to forget about necessary preparation. Caught up in excitement about an idea, we may set out on a longer project without contemplating the reader’s needs. We’re so excited about hitting the trail that we forget about our companion. (Especially in nonfiction, we really need to understand the reader’s needs.)

Blog posts don’t present much danger to the reader. If you’re one of my regular subscribers — first, thank you so much! And, I realize that not every post will resonate with you. That’s why I try to signal where we’re going through the title, subtitles, and introduction. Then you can decide if you want to come along this time, or wait for the next post. No hard feelings.

But books and lengthy works require planning to keep the reader with you, so they don’t bail partway through, lost or exhausted. That requires planning.

Pack extra cookies for long treks

Let’s say you’re writing a substantive piece on a tough topic, or even a book. How do you make sure the reader stays with you on the journey?

Just as in hiking—with breaks and snacks!

Thermos, cookies, and bread on a wooden table. (Image: DepositPhoto)

Breaks: Subheads. Chapter breaks. Breaks within chapters. Pull quotes. Even short paragraphs. Anything that gives the reader a chance to rest their minds for a moment and absorb what they’ve done so far.

Snacks: Stories, humor, pictures, pithy sayings, clever analogies. Snacks include anything that entertains the reader or helps them grasp your ideas clearly.

Pack appropriately

If you buy into metaphor, how do you apply it to your life? Here are three thoughts.

Embrace the exploratory strolls—for yourself. This post began with me jotting down quick thoughts on the metaphor. It took shape only after I’d written a bunch of stuff that I ended up leaving by the wayside. (Alas, you’ll never see the Gilligan’s Island analogy that I tossed.)Be clear about who you are bringing with you, where you’re going, and what you need to bring for them. If the terrain is tough, bring more treats.When setting out on a trek, remember that the best-laid plans can run amok. If you explore as you go, you might veer off path. Leave time to explore with the reader, but make it to the end of the trail on time.Related Writing

If you want a full menu of nonfiction “snacks” to use, check out Writing to Be Understood.

Can’t get enough of those outdoor metaphors for writing? Read Take the Next Small Step.

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Published on August 19, 2025 14:51

Try on another writing voice

As teenagers figure out who they are becoming as adults and where they fit in the world, they sometimes experiment with other identities. We can apply a similar strategy to finding our writing voice: try on a few extreme alternatives.

Today’s writing exercise entails writing about your own life using an entirely different voice than your default option. You’ll pick a voice of a fictional character or famous author, and use it to discover things about your own writing voice.

The exercise (repeat as often as desired)

First, make a short list of fictional characters or famous authors with distinct approaches and voices.

For fictional characters, you might dip into distinct options from favorite books or shows, like Sam Spade or the Dowager Countess on Downton Abbey (as portrayed by Dame Maggie Smith, of course). For authors, consider Jane Austen’s sly narrator in Pride and Prejudice, or Edgar Allen Poe’s narrator in “The Raven.” Think of character voices you can summon easily.

Now, make a short list of activities or experiences in your life. This might include:

A description of your favorite coffee shopAn event from your last vacationA protest or city hall you attendedA recent phone conversation with a relative

Now, pick one event and one character, and match them up.

How would Hercule Poirot (famously fastidious) describe the hike you took in the woods?How would the Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey, as played by Dame Maggie Smith, describe attending a local protest?

You get the idea. Write a few paragraphs using one voice, then try on another.

Why do this?

When you’re done, see what you learned. Which parts of this character’s voice might true to you, to a greater or lesser degree? Which are not? What does this tell you?

Your fictional character may give you an entirely different (and maybe humorous) perspective on your topic. And, you may discover elements of their voices that you’d like to play with on your own.

You may find that you have a dash of Dowager Duchess, or that you enjoy rugged Hemingway prose. Perhaps this will lead you to experiment. If nothing else, it should help you identify and lean into your own voice when you need it. Writing is a human communication, we need to distinguish ourselves from the bots!

In Praise of Procrastination

Statue of angle holding an hourglass in its hand (DepositPhoto)

Let us take a moment to appreciate the much-maligned act (or non-act?) of procrastination.

Writers often beat themselves up over procrastinating. Why haven’t I written that novel yet? Why can’t I get around to writing a poem, or working on that book or story?

The list of things you can/should be doing probably feels like a bottomless pit into which you throw teaspoons of work. (Once you’ve published a book, you discover another bottomless pit of book promotion, but we’ll leave that for another post.)

You’re not alone. Most of us experience procrastination guilt when it comes to our writing. And yes, aimless procrastination can hurt us, delaying or deterring our goals. But it’s not all bad.

Procrastination is a realistic response to a world that asks too much of us.

As Oliver Burkeman reminds us in one of my favorite books, Four Thousand Weeks, our time here is finite. We won’t accomplish most of the things we think we could, much less what other people expect of us. Better to acknowledge that reality than beat ourselves up.

Seen in that light, procrastination might illuminate a path to growth.

The upside of procrastination

When is procrastination worthwhile? Here are a few thoughts:

When procrastination signals prioritization

Writers sometimes report that they feel badly about not meeting their writing goals because they’re caring for an aging parent, handling a crisis with a sibling or child, recovering from an illness, or dealing with some other life crisis.

Those actions are important. If the issues are short-term, then by dealing with them you are exhibiting wise priorities, not procrastination. If the situation will linger, then you need to solve the trickier issue of figuring out how writing fits with your other obligations. That’s a planning issue.

When it’s a message from your subconscious self

What if you truly value the writing, yet you’re still letting everything else cut in front?

When this happens, it’s time to interrogate your procrastinating self.

Ask deep questions about why you aren’t working. Answer those questions in a journal, or talk with a sympathetic writing friend. When working with clients, we often uncover something deeper going on.

An unresolved issue with the project. You might discover that you don’t know how to address something in the book, or you’re worried about how someone you know will respond to your work. You might find a solution simply by shining a light on the issue. Misalignment. Perhaps you set out on a project, but in your bones you know that it’s not the direction you want to head. If you can surface that resistance, you can make a wiser decision about whether or not to proceed, or how much time to give the project. (I have said “yes” to projects in the past that I later wished I’d waited to accept. They’ve led to detours that I might have avoided with judicious procrastination.)Fear. As one of my author clients asked, “What if I’m wrong?” It’s hard to voice that fear, but once you do, it’s easy enough to address. You can ask trusted sources to verify your approach. You can get a small group of beta readers. Ask an expert. Work with a coach. Test your ideas.

When it’s really incubation

Ideas may need time to simmer and grow. If you’re thinking about them, making notes, bringing them up to look at them in different lights, then you’re not procrastinating, you’re incubating. That’s a vital part of the writing process. (Check out The Writer’s Process for much more on that topic!)

Making peace with procrastination

What if we acknowledge procrastination as a necessary partner in the writing life — and indeed, life itself? Here are a few ways to work with procrastination as an inescapable part of your writing life:

Prioritize. You have permission to put off things less important projects in favor of meaningful ones.Interrogate yourself. Is your delay telling you something deeper about the project? You might change direction or confront a specific fear or problem to get unstuck.Get started on a project by gathering ideas. Turn procrastination into intentional incubation, so the writing comes easily when you’re ready.

Be kind to yourself. Make room for the writing that matters most to you.

Other resources

A podcast: Want to dive more into dealing with procrastination and productivity? Check out this recent conversation on the Write Anyway podcast: Stop Being Mean to Yourself about Productivity.

Two books: To consider procrastination in the scope of your life, read Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks. For digging into incubation in writing, read The Writer’s Process.

An online course: Take my short class on Intentional Incubation.

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Published on July 15, 2025 10:01

Flip your writing intention

A Writing Voice Exercise

Whenever we write for other people (rather than simply for ourselves), that writing becomes a vehicle for our intentions. What do we want the reader to do or feel? Those intentions definitely color the writing voice.

Yet you may not give them much thought. This month’s exercise will jar you out of any writing ruts by asking you to turn those intentions on their head.

The three intentions

Most writing intentions can be sorted into three buckets:

Entertainment Information Persuasion or motivation

These buckets are big; entertainment may include beautiful poetry, mind-bending sci fi, or engrossing fiction, for example. And many pieces succeed on multiple fronts. A story might entertain while also changing the reader’s mind. An essay might inform and persuade.

But you can usually identify out the least important intention for anything you write. That’s the one we want to lean into.

The exercise: Flip it around

Find a relatively short piece of prose you’ve already written, like a flash fiction piece, a quick essay or blog post. For email-based fun, choose a substantive email you might send to a friend or colleague.

Choose the least important intention for that piece, and rewrite the piece making that the primary objective.

For example, if you wrote an email to your mother telling her when your flight was coming in, your primary intention was informing her. Perhaps, if you cracked a joke, you hoped to entertain. Now return to that email and pick a persuasive motivation — maybe you’ll convince her to bake a cake before you arrive!

Please note, you don’t have to send the email.

Does the result sound absurd? Probably! Perhaps it was fun. And it probably made you flex part of your voice you don’t usually use.

Go ahead and try this with different types of writing. This exercise may help you discover elements of your voice that make your writing richer. For example, if you always write deeply fact-based prose, you may gain the courage to offer an opinion. If you’re always persuading, you might benefit from developing humor in your work.

Let me know if this yields any interesting insights for you.

Enjoy this?

Check out all of the voice exercises in The Writer’s Voice.

Check out this post: Using Humor in Nonfiction Writing

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Published on July 01, 2025 10:38

Is it time to branch out in your writing?

The poet Maggie Smith spoke at my local bookshop recently, on tour for her new book Dear Writer, a book of writing advice. I showed up because I’d just finished her memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful.

Did you notice the diversity? She identifies as a poet and essayist, but has written a memoir and now a prescriptive nonfiction book on writing. Oh, she’s also written a journal (Keep Moving). In the talk, she mentioned that she’s working on new projects as well. She is constantly stretching her comfort zone.

What if we emulate her, with confidence in our strengths and willingness to branch out and see where it takes us?

Writers often identify as only one type of writer, and the incentives to keep doing that are powerful.

Yet, branching out can help us in many ways. Here are a few that come to mind.

Nurture your identity as a writer

When people only do one kind of writing, they often discount that skill, leading to strange comparisons with other writers, such as:

“I only write technical explanations … I’m not a real writer.”

Or,

“I only write poems, not books.”

Or,

“I write mysteries, not literary fiction.”

We may feel like there’s an unwritten hierarchy of writing, and whatever rung we’re on isn’t high enough.

To which I say, “Bah!”

That’s like saying that real gardeners grow vegetables, while you only grow flowers — or the other way around. Both kinds of gardeners coax life out of the soil. They may use different strategies, but one isn’t inherently worthier than the other. Whether you nurture a small vegetable patch or are part of a crew tending a large, formal garden, you’re gardening.

By experimenting with other types of writing, you reinforce the broader sense of yourself as a real writer—whatever that means to you. And, like planting a pumpkin in your flower bed, you might end up with a delightful harvest.

Cross-train for craft

Early in his career, the humorist Dave Barry spent seven years teaching business writing at major corporations. (I learned that from the review of his memoir.) That experience made him pay greater attention to detail, and how shifts in words and structure affect tone.

If you always write nonfiction, what would happen if you try your hand at poetry? You might pay more attention to the rhythm of your prose, or play with internal rhymes or assonance.

Changing genres is like cross-training. Serious swimmers don’t train only in the water, they work in the weight room. Writing across genres helps us develop strengths that serve us well in our preferred format.

Find new ways to use your voice

You may find that the skills you’ve developed in your everyday writing serve you well in a new format.

For example, Maggie Smith brings a poetic sensibility to her writing that creates a common, connective thread. She includes poems in her memoir and her craft book. Andy Weir wove his skills in explaining science into the fabric of The Martian.

Don’t discount your strengths, even if they don’t seem like a perfect fit. Be confident in your writing voice and bring it with you.

What will you try next?

Do you already write in multiple, diverse genres? If so, think about how each one informs the other. Does this make you a better writer overall?

And if you tend to stick to one type of writing, experiment with something new. You can start with something small.

If you always write fiction, experiment with flash nonfiction. (See Brevity for inspiring examples.) Or write a few poems.If you’re a nonfiction sort, play with flash fiction or short stories, or poetry. (The Dear Writer book has plenty of poetry advice.)

Read first, to get the feel of the genre. Then see what happens when you branch out.

Feel free to share any successes or questions.

How readable is your writing?

The June Writing Voice exercise

Icon showing text, glasses, and yellow check mark on a computer, to indicated readability check. (DepositPhoto)

Did you know that the average American reads at a seventh or eight-grade level? [Source.] Depending on what you’re writing and how many people you hope to reach, you might pitch your writing voice to that level.

Remember that the reader makes the final decision about your writing voice. Perhaps you intend to sound sophisticated and learned. If readers cannot understand what you write, they won’t be muttering about your brilliance as they slog through the writing.

Readers feel more warmly toward writers who are easy to understand. So, check your readability score.

Who’s keeping score?

Once we leave grade school behind, we rarely choose books based on their posted reading level. Most of us read at a wide range of levels, from corporate reports or dense science tomes to the escapist “beach read.”

Where does your writing fall, on a scale from scientific paper to beach read? (Of course, even within those genres readability levels vary, but you get the idea.)

Lucky for us, we can check the readability level of our work using widely available assessments.

Most offer scores based on the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease assessment, which generates a score from 1 to 100 — higher is easier to read. The companion Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score maps to approximate grade levels 1-18 (first grade through graduate school). In this case, a higher number indicates that the text is harder to read. (Yes, the scales tip in opposite directions. Sigh.)

Guess, then assess

Where do you think your work lands in a grade level score? 8th grade? 10th? 12th?

Make a guess, then run it through a readability assessment. Here are a few places to find one:

In Microsoft Word, look in the Spelling and Grammar editorIn tools like Grammarly and ProWriting Aid, look for ReadabilityIf you don’t use those, search online for Flesch Kincaid calculator and copy something you’ve written into it.

How close was your guess? Are you surprised?

Optional: Play with your score

Readability (as calculated by those scales) arises from two fundamental decisions you make in writing: word choices and sentence construction.

The Flesch-Kincaid scales determine reading level by two factors only:

The average number of syllables in a wordThe average number of words in a sentence

That’s all. Not richness of thought, depth of vocabulary, or sophistication of subject matter. Just how long the words and sentences are, on average.

To make your text more readable: use shorter sentences and shorter words.

Experiment with this on your own. Make a few changes then run it through the calculator again. How hard is it to affect the level, either up or down? What feels “right” to your voice?

Just for fun, choose a few passages from authors you admire run see where they land. You might be surprised.

“Wait, my readers operate at a higher level!”

Perhaps you worry people will think less of you if you don’t show up with your long words. You might fear talking down to them.

Let’s dig into that. Readability does not mean “dumbing down” your work in any way. (I dislike that phrase for so many reasons.) Writing concisely requires more careful thought, not less. You can choose words that pack a punch in fewer syllables. We talked about the effects of sentence length in an earlier post in this series.

Even educated readers appreciate less-challenging prose. Perhaps they’re pick up your work at the end of a long day. How much of their mental energy are they willing to devote to your words? Won’t they feel more warmly about your voice if they don’t have to work so darned hard?

More to explore

Learn more about the Flesch-Kincaid scales.

Find an online readability test here.

This topic maps to the sixth section of The Writer’s Voice. Find more voice-related exercises there — as a print book from Amazon, Bookshop, or as a PDF directly from me.

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Published on June 03, 2025 13:28

The Case of the Missing Subject

Headless mannequins in black/white. (Stencil)

There’s a subtle thief hiding in much nonfiction writing, stealing the life from sentences. Yes, it’s time to talk about dummy subjects—when “it” and “there” stand in for an undetermined subject in a sentence.

There’s nothing grammatically wrong with dummy subjects. But — and there’s a “but” of course — this usage dims the power of your prose. It pays to search them out, as they may weaken your writing voice.

***

Did you notice that those first paragraphs used it and there as subjects? I confess: Those sentence structures come to me easily. For people who write about abstract topics (policy makers, academics, lawyers), dummy subjects can become second nature.

But if you rely on them too much, your prose can be boring. And they have a dark side; they may hide the true actor or the author’s views. We can do better.

Detecting the dummies

You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to spot the dummy subjects in your writing. They usually take one of two forms.

The existential there:

There is a reason for my actionThere are people who say…

The indeterminate it, where ‘it’ doesn’t refer to any past noun readers can easily find, but points at some abstract idea you have yet to present. For example:

It is obvious that…It is time to …

It’s no mystery why we write with dummy subjects—they are useful in writing and common in speech. (I just used one so I could use the phrase “it’s no mystery.”)

We may not know the true subject of a sentence, or don’t want to shine the spotlight on the actor. Using” “there” might be easier than figuring out who’s responsible. (We also use passive voice to avoid naming the subject, but that’s a topic for a different post.)

Dummy subjects often thrive in corporate writing or academic writing—situations in which writers deal with abstractions rather than people. Yet those types of writing also benefit from fewer dummies.

Find the real actor

Dummy subjects keep your writing more firmly in the realm of the abstract, rather than the concrete. We can’t picture what “there” looks like. Running into a vague “it” may send us hunting for the reference like a detective.

You might need to think more deeply about your subject to replace the dummies, but the effort usually pays off. (Seriously, I started to write “it’s usually worth the effort.” This habit is hard to kick.)

Let’s revisit the start of this post. Here’s the first sentence.

There is a subtle thief hiding in much nonfiction writing, stealing the life from sentences.

The word “thief” elevates the sentence—bringing energy and meaning to the sentence at the fifth word. But, the first three words are essentially throw-aways, or what my friend Erin Lebacqz calls a “slow lead-in.”

What if we starting with meaning right away and simply make thief the true subject:

A hidden thief is stealing the life from our sentences.

Ooh, that is more interesting. I cannot yet picture the thief, but I’m intrigued.

Or, let’s keep the detective/theft analogy while bringing in the reader directly:

A sneaky thief might be hiding in your nonfiction prose—and stealing your voice.

You get the idea.

Making peace with the dummies

If your first drafts are loaded with dummy subjects, they may reflect the way your brain assembles ideas into words. You are not alone.

I’ve made peace with my first drafts, as I’m too old to change thought patterns established over decades. But, I can always revise, for my readers’ sake.

I humbly offer the same suggestion to you: Write your first drafts without judgment. Then, do a global search for dummie subjects:

there is, there are, or there’s it is or it’s

Filter out the legitimate uses of those words, like where ‘it’ replaces a previous noun.

Then, rework some of those sentences to use real subjects, even if you have to use an abstract concept. You’ll probably find that eliminating the dummies gives the sentence more energy. You may choose to let a few remain, as they reflect natural speech patterns. But as a general rule, dial down the dummies.