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Essay Trimmer: Reduce the Word Count for Free

Reducing the number of words is not easy, especially in the content that you have created yourself. Use the free essay trimmer to cut down any text.

Looking for an essay trimmer?

Take the 3 steps to remove clutter from your paper:

The word limit for each academic paper is set for a reason. It helps us focus research on a particular number of issues, plan writing, and communicate ideas clearly and concisely.

But what to do if you have reached the limit and still have ideas to write down? Use our Word Count Trimmer! Read the article below to discover its main advantages and ways of using it in your favor!

🤔 What Is a Word Count Trimmer?

️⚙️ How to Use the Trimmer?

✂️ Words to Cut out of Essays

🔻 how to reduce word count.

😀 Essay Trimmer: Benefits

❓ Sentence Trimmer: FAQ

🔗 references.

Essay Trimmer is an online tool that can help you reduce the length of any text to a specified number of sentences. It picks the most important sentences, thus decreasing the word count without changing the core message of the piece.

This online word cutter can be especially beneficial for those working with a lot of written content. As a bonus, you can also use the app to summarize books, novels, and articles on any topic.

⚙️ How to Use the Paragraph Trimmer?

Using Word Count Trimmer does not require much effort! Just follow 4 steps below and get the result within a second:

Paste the text. The first step is to paste the text you have chosen into the appropriate field of the Essay Word Cutter. Ensure that your piece of writing does not exceed 20k characters.
Adjust the settings. You can choose the length of shortened version and whether you want to receive keywords from the text.
Click the button. Then, give our summarizing bot a second to produce the outcome.
Get the shortened version. You can copy the final result in just one click!

When reducing the word count, you should primarily target phrases that do not add any value to your text. Below are some types of words you can easily cut out from your essay.

Apart from removing the unnecessary words listed above, you can use several more effective ways to cut down the number of words in your essay. Read on to gain some new insights!

Use the Shortest Forms of Words & Phrases

If there is a choice between a long phrase or word and a short one — choose the latter! This recommendation is especially critical if you must keep your writing within a specific character count instead of a word count. For example, instead of “give consideration to,” you can use “consider” or “think about.”

Don’t Repeat Yourself

Unfortunately, repetition is a widespread mistake among college students or even experienced writers. You can convey the same thought a couple of times using different words, which can irritate your readers or make them bored. Therefore, express each idea in your essay clearly and briefly.

Choose Active Voice

The active voice comprises fewer words than the passive one. As a result, using active voice makes your writing more straightforward and more appealing to readers, allowing you to tell a more impactful story. Check out the example below.

Begin Sentences with the Subject

If you begin sentences with the subject , your writing will be easier to comprehend because it will be evident who or what the statement is about. Moreover, you’ll have to remove all unnecessary introductory phrases before the subject, thus reducing your word count. Just consider the most crucial element in the statement and build a sentence around it.

Here’s an example:

❌ It was found that after an earthquake, the largest building in the town survived.
✅ The largest building in the town survived an earthquake.

Focus on the Message

When your writing lacks focus and you don’t clearly understand what you want to say, it is easy to write too much. You will jump from one idea to another, and your paper will become messy. To avoid it, focus on your thesis statement and logically arrange your main arguments to support it. A carefully structured outline can help you with that.

😃 Essay Trimmer: Benefits

Don’t miss a chance to try our Essay Trimmer! It has so much to offer to its users:

❓ Why Is Word Count Important?

Having a specific word count puts you in control. It makes writing more manageable because it lets you plan how much research you should do and how to structure your paper. Word limit also allows you to allocate the appropriate amount of time to writing and focus on the core message you want to highlight in your text.

❓ How Many Words Should an Essay Be?

The essay’s length depends on your assignment type, professor’s instructions, and education level. Here are sample word counts for common assignments:

High school essay – 300-1000 words;
College applications – 200-700 words;
Graduate school applications – 500-1000 words;
Graduate-level papers – 2000-6000 words.

❓ How to Cut Down Words in an Essay?

Use the tips below to cut down words in your essay or paper and strengthen your writing:

Use active voice instead of passive.
Utilize the plural when possible.
Remove redundant transition words.
Turn some nouns into verbs.
Use possessive nouns.

❓ How to Check Word Count on Google Docs?

Take these 4 steps to check the word count in Google Docs:

Open the Google Doc and paste your text.
Click “Tools” in the header menu.
Choose “Word Count” from the drop-down menu.
Check the word count in a pop-up window.

Updated: Apr 15th, 2024

10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count | The University of Adelaide
Eliminating Words | Purdue Online Writing Lab
Writing Concisely | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Strategies for Reducing Word Count | University of Georgia
Cutting Out Lard | University of Massachusetts Amherst

How to Shorten an Essay: 4 Techniques to Reduce Word Count

If you need to shorten your essay by 100-500 words, or even more, you can use one or more of four techniques. You can clean up your sentences, remove repetition, summarize your examples, and/or cut out an entire section.

One of my subscribers recently asked me, “ How do I compress an essay of 700-1000 words, or even more, to just 300 words? ”

In this tutorial I will show you four easy ways to shorten your essay by as much or as little as you wish. I am giving them to you in the order you should try them out.

Here are four techniques to shorten your essay:

Technique #1: Sentence Cleanup

When I taught essay writing in college, I noticed that students wrote sentences that were just too wordy.

They used 20 words where 10 would have probably done the trick. If you examine your sentences, you’ll often find that you can say the same thing in much fewer words.

“In my opinion, there are many people who want to lose weight.”

This sentence contains 12 words.

Here’s how we can shorten it by performing a Sentence Cleanup.

First, you never have to say, “ In my opinion, ” because if it were not your opinion, you wouldn’t be stating it. Okay? So, let’s cross out “ in my opinion. ”

“ In my opinion, there are many people who want to lose weight.”

We just cut out three words.

Next, the phrase “ there are ” is usually unnecessary, and if you take it out, your sentence will become more elegant. So, let’s do it. Let’s just cross it out.

“ There are many people who want to lose weight.”

We also have to cross out the extra word “ who ” because it is only needed if you use “ there are. ”

We just got rid of three more words.

And so our sentence becomes:

“Many people want to lose weight.”

How many words is that? That is now a six word sentence. Guess what – we just cut this sentence in half.

Do this enough times in your essay, and it will get a lot shorter.

“How do I cut out 200 words from my essay to make it shorter?”

This sentence contains 14 words. Let’s perform a Sentence Cleanup.

Notice that it is pretty obvious that to cut out 200 words from an essay will make it shorter. Therefore, stating that you want to do it “ to make it shorter ” is unnecessary.

If we get rid of that phrase, we’ll cut out 4 words from this sentence and make it a lot more elegant.

“How do I cut out 200 words from my essay to make it shorter ?”

Technique #2: Removing Repetition

Repetition can be found on all levels – in a sentence, in a paragraph, or a section. When you reduce or eliminate repetition in your essay, you are making it less redundant. “Redundant” just means repetitive and therefore useless.

In the last example we just did, we eliminated a redundancy from a sentence. And that’s part of a Sentence Cleanup. But you can also find and eliminate entire redundant sentences.

Look for repetitive phrases, sentences, and even passages in your content and remove them.

Students often repeat things over and over, using different words, thinking that they’re writing great content. Those are your opportunities to significantly shorten your essay while improving it at the same time.

Here’s an example from a fictitious student essay. Let’s say the student writes about his trip to Paris and states:

“ I found that Parisians are very nice if you talk to them in French. ”

And then, in the same or even a different paragraph or section, the following sentence would appear:

“Parisians can be very nice people, but they really prefer that you speak French with them.”

Well, the two sentences say the same thing, just using different words.

So, what do you do?

Pick the longer sentence and just delete it.

Sometimes you will find a whole paragraph in your essay that is repetitive and can be removed without the essay losing any meaning. If you find such a paragraph, just delete it.

Technique #3: Zooming Out

Make sure that you go through your essay using the first two techniques before you employ this and the next one.

The only case where you would do Zooming Out first would be if you had to shorten your essay drastically – by 30% or more.

If you’ve cleaned up all your sentences and removed all repetitive content, and you still need to lose hundreds of words, the Zooming Out technique will really help.

Here’s how it works.

You may have heard that in essay writing, you are supposed to proceed from general to specific. Whether you stick to this rule really well in your essay or not, I want you to notice something.

In your essay, you make statements that are:

very general
less general
somewhat specific
very specific

The most general statement in your essay is the thesis because it summarizes the entire essay. And the most specific parts of your essay are examples .

So, in order to shorten your essay, you can summarize your examples. I call this Zooming Out because you are taking something that was very specific (zoomed in) and making it more general (zoomed out).

Let’s say you’re writing about the harms of second-hand smoking. And in one of the sections you provide an example of your friend or someone in the news who became seriously ill because she lived with a smoker for a long time:

“My friend Isabelle was married to a chain smoker. Her husband refused not only to give up his habit but even to reduce it. As years went by, Isabelle began to notice some respiratory symptoms. At first, she developed a light but persistent cough. Then, she started to feel out of breath more and more often. When she finally went to a pulmonologist, a test revealed that she had COPD, a serious lung disease.”

This example is 74 words long. And this is your opportunity to shorten your essay dramatically.

You can simply contract this example into one short sentence and write something like this:

“A friend of mine developed lung disease after having lived with a chain smoker for twelve years.”

Now, this sentence contains only 17 words. We just cut out 57 words just by Zooming Out on one example.

We are Zooming Out because we are no longer exploring this example in detail. We simply provide a fact without giving a lot of specific information.

So, look for these detailed examples in your essay and just summarize each of them into one short sentence.

Technique #4: Cutting out a Section

This technique works very well to cut out a big chunk of your essay in one fell swoop.

Let’s say that you wrote an essay in which you have four supporting points to prove your main point, your thesis.

If this is a 2,000-word essay, then each section is approximately 500 words long. But do you really need four reasons/sections to support your point?

Is it possible that if you provide only three supporting points, your essay will still work very well?

For example, if you argue that apples are a great food, you could have four supporting points, claiming that apples are:

But what if you simply took out one of these points? Let’s say that you eliminate the section about the portability of apples.

Will your essay still work? Sure it will. It will work just fine with the three remaining supporting points. And you just cut out 500 words (in a 2,000-word essay).

After you have cut out a section, make sure to go back to your thesis statement and edit it to reflect the change.

I’ll leave you with one final tip. When trying to choose which sentence, paragraph, or section to cut out from your essay, go for the content that you know is not the best.

For example, you may have a section in your essay where you quote too much. Or, perhaps you were not very careful in paraphrasing, and your passage sounds too much like the original source. These would be great bits of content to get rid of.

I hope this was helpful. Now go ahead and shorten your essay to your heart’s desire!

How to Write a 300 Word Essay – Simple Tutorial

How to expand an essay – 4 tips to increase the word count, 10 solid essay writing tips to help you improve quickly, essay writing for beginners: 6-step guide with examples, 6 simple ways to improve sentence structure in your essays.

Tutor Phil is an e-learning professional who helps adult learners finish their degrees by teaching them academic writing skills.

1. Delete your three Worst Paragraphs

I usually aim to go over my word count intentionally so I can creatively make the essay shorter in a way that increases my marks.

If I go over the word count, I can look back over my piece and find my worst performing paragraphs and remove them.

This not only helps me to ensure I present my best work to the teacher, it also forces me to admit that some of my writing is better than others. It keeps me critical of myself and always aiming for improvement.

Removing the worst paragraphs of an essay also ensures there are less boring, pointless or unanalytical sections of an essay. It means that the paragraphs I submit are the best sections – and that the teacher will be impressed throughout the piece.

To assess which paragraphs are best and worst, I do the following things:

Find the paragraphs with the least or worst references in them. Teachers will scan over a paragraph to assess the quality of the references in them. Paragraphs with minimal referencing, too much referencing of just one source, or only references to non-academic sources, instantly get marked down by the teacher before they’re even read. These are also often the paragraphs that provide the least depth of information. That is because finding sources to reference in a paragraph often leads to adding detail that the source has provided.
Find the paragraphs that are least convincing. When I re-read my paragraphs, sometimes I just think ‘the argument here is my weakest’. These are the ones I want to cut: they’re ones that won’t get me top marks. Teachers will lower your marks for any paragraph that doesn’t shine – so you’re best removing it.
Rate your paragraphs out of 10. I often tell my students to delete their three worst paragraphs and they say ‘I like all of them!’ In this case, you will have to get brutal with yourself: rate every paragraph out of 10. This will help you make the hard decisions about which to lose.
Combine two paragraphs into one. Sometimes I really like one sentence from a paragraph but don’t like the rest. If this is the case for you, have a go at extracting those good sentences from one paragraph and placing them in another one. Then, you can delete the not-so-good sentences from the original paragraph. If you do this, make sure all paragraphs still cohere around one key point.

2. Listen for Weaknesses using Google Translate or Microsoft Excel Read-out-Loud

Google Translate and Microsoft Excel both have read-out-loud options. Google Translate’s option is the easiest.

For Google Translate, simply search for ‘Google Translate’ on your internet search engine (or just click here ) to access it. Then, copy and paste the text into the translate box and press the ‘listen’ button:

screenshot of the google translate widget

For Microsoft Excel, you will need paste the whole essay into any cell and then activate the read out loud option.

This procedure is somewhat more complicated than Google Translate, but if you want to give it a go, you can get instructions from the Microsoft help website and go from there

Hearing your paper read out loud back to you can help you to identify which paragraphs or sentences are worth removing.

Here are some things to keep in mind while listening to the computer read your paper out loud to you:

If a sentence feels like it’s too long and exhausting to listen to, you can bet your teacher will be exhausted, too;
If a phrase seems awkward to hear, it will be awkward to read;
If the paper seems to have lost its focus on the topic area, you’ll need to remove that section or edit it to ensure it links to the essay question.

Pause the read-out-loud each time you find a sentence long or awkward and work on shortening it.

Too often, students think long, complicated sentences with fancy-sounding words will get them marks. In reality, it’s the opposite.

Being able to describe complex concepts in a very easy, understandable way is a skill all top students learn to master.

The read-out-loud option can help you to see your paper from your marker’s perspective. Use it to your advantage and listen out for anything that sounds complicated, confusing, awkward or exhausting. Delete it or shorten it immediately.

Remember, the goal is to have your paper sounding short and clear.

3. Re-Read the Marking Criteria

When editing your work, it is best to have the marking criteria by your side at all times.

The marking criteria is the list of things the teacher is looking for when marking your essay. Sometimes it’s also called:

Marking Criteria;
Indicative Content;
Marking Rubric;
Learning Outcomes

These should be easy to find. Go to your course webpage (usually on Blackboard, Canvas, or Moodle depending on your university) and find where your teacher has provided details about your assessment. If there are marking criteria, this is where it would be.

Sometimes, teachers don’t provide marking criteria.

If the teacher has simply provided an essay topic or question, that means the chances are they don’t have a list of outcomes they are marking your piece against. In these instances, you will have to simply rely on the essay question.

When you have your marking criteria or essay question by your side, read each paragraph then look back to your marking criteria.

You need to ask yourself:

Does this paragraph directly answer the essay question or marking criteria?
Does this paragraph add new information that helps me answer the essay question?

If your paragraph is not linked directly to the essay question or marking criteria, you’ve just identified the paragraph you need to remove to reduce your word count.

4. Shorten Paragraphs over 7 Sentences Long

Teachers hate long paragraphs. Teachers are just like you and me. They get bored very fast.

Chances are, any paragraph over 7 sentences isn’t being fully read. The teacher might have only read the first three sentences and made their judgement about your work based on those three sentences!

That’s why the ideal paragraph should be between 4 and 7 sentences long. This length helps to ensure:

You haven’t gone off on a tangent;
You have provided some explanatory or example sentences, but not too many;
You have focused only on one key idea in the paragraph.

Your paragraphs that are more than 7 sentences long will be your low-hanging fruit for reducing your word count. Read through each of these paragraphs and try to find a way to reduce it to only 6 sentences. Find those sentences that seem to drag on or add nothing useful to your discussion and delete them.

By reducing all paragraphs over 7 sentences long, you won’t only bring your word count down. You will also make your essay much clearer and easy to read.

In this way, you’re both reducing your word count and increasing your mark.

5. Delete Irrelevant Words

Going through your paper and deleting irrelevant words can often save you several hundred words and could shorten your essay enough to get you back within the required word count.

Irrelevant words are words that are overly descriptive, redundant, too emotive, or in first-person. These words tend to get the same point across in far more words than necessary.

Furthermore, you will find that in removing overly descriptive, redundant, emotive and first-person words, your work will be much improved.

This is because academic writing is supposed to be formal and direct. Writing too many words can make your marker think you have poor communication skills and do not understand academic writing requirements.

Check below for examples of how to reduce your word count by removing overly descriptive, redundant, overly emotive and first-person language.

Overly Descriptive: The amazing thing about the industrial revolution was that it brought about enormous changes to the ways people transported themselves and communicated across the globe in such a short amount of time.
Alternative: The industrial revolution brought about rapid changes in transportation and communication globally.
Redundant: The sum of five hundred dollars.
Alternative: $500
Redundant: It was quite unique.
Alternative: It was unique.
Redundant: It was triangular in shape.
Alternative: It was triangular.
Too Emotive: The disgusting thing about communism is that it refuses to allow poor everyday people to improve their lives by creating their own businesses that might flourish and really help our their communities, too!
Alternative: Communism prevents citizens from starting businesses that can help bring people and their communities out of poverty.
In first Person: In summary, I believe that the Industrial Revolution was good for the whole world.
Alternative: In summary, the Industrial Revolution was good for the world.
In first Person: This author argues that Thomas Edison was the greatest mind of his time.
Alternative: Thomas Edison was the greatest mind of his time.

Making your essay shorter can sometimes be an absolute nightmare.

By following the above five steps, you can find easy ways to reduce your word count while also improving your work.

If you are an advanced or ambitious student, you might find that you always go over the word count. This isn’t necessarily a problem.

Try to look at going over the word count as a positive thing. Going over the word count means you have the freedom to only present your best work. You have the chance to delete anything that isn’t absolutely focused on gaining you marks.

In the end, your final submission will be cleaner, easier to read and easier to mark. Hopefully, this will see your marks growing even more!

Let’s review one more time the five top ways the best students reduce their word count in an essay:

Five Top Ways to Make an Essay Shorter

Delete your three Worst Paragraphs
Use Google Translate or Microsoft Excel to Read your Paper out Loud
Re-Read the Marking Criteria
Shorten Paragraphs over 6 Sentences Long
Delete Irrelevant Words

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ What is Educational Psychology?
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ What is IQ? (Intelligence Quotient)
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 5 Top Tips for Succeeding at University

Eliminating Words

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1. Eliminate words that explain the obvious or provide excessive detail

Always consider readers while drafting and revising writing. If passages explain or describe details that would already be obvious to readers, delete or reword them. Readers are also very adept at filling in the non-essential aspects of a narrative, as in the fourth example.

2. Eliminate unnecessary determiners and modifiers

Writers sometimes clog up their prose with one or more extra words or phrases that seem to determine narrowly or to modify the meaning of a noun but don't actually add to the meaning of the sentence. Although such words and phrases can be meaningful in the appropriate context, they are often used as "filler" and can easily be eliminated.

Here's a list of some words and phrases that can often be pruned away to make sentences clearer:

for all intents and purposes

3. Omit repetitive wording

Watch for phrases or longer passages that repeat words with similar meanings. Words that don't build on the content of sentences or paragraphs are rarely necessary.

4. Omit redundant pairs

Many pairs of words imply each other. Finish implies complete, so the phrase completely finish is redundant in most cases.

So are many other pairs of words:

past memories
various differences
each individual _______
basic fundamentals
important essentials
future plans
terrible tragedy
final outcome
past history
unexpected surprise
sudden crisis

A related expression that's not redundant as much as it is illogical is "very unique." Since unique means "one of a kind," adding modifiers of degree such as "very," "so," "especially," "somewhat," "extremely," and so on is illogical. One-of-a-kind-ness has no gradations; something is either unique or it is not.

5. Omit redundant categories

Specific words imply their general categories, so we usually don't have to state both. We know that a period is a segment of time, that pink is a color, that shiny is an appearance.

In each of the following phrases, the general category term can be dropped, leaving just the specific descriptive word:

large in size
often times
of a bright color
heavy in weight
period in time
round in shape
at an early time
economics field
of cheap quality
honest in character
of an uncertain condition
in a confused state
unusual in nature
extreme in degree
of a strange type

Essay Writing Tips: Eliminate Wordiness

Trent Lorcher
Categories : Help with writing assignments paragraphs, essays, outlines & more
Tags : Homework help & study guides

Essay Writing Tips: Trust Words

Out of all the essay writing tips I could give, this one is most important: Eliminate wordiness. The following essay writing tips will help you do just that:

For example, a dishonest thief (all thieves are dishonest); a terrible tragedy (tragedies are terrible by definition); a joyous celebration (you get the point).
For example, brown in color (we already know that brown is a color); dull in appearance; a confused state.
For example, each and every (both words mean about the same thing); I want any and all individuals who cheated to come here (either any or all would suffice).
For example, instead of at this point in time , try now . Instead of she exceeds ordinary standards , try she is excellent .
For example, there is no difference between being skeptical and being somewhat skeptical, very tired and exhausted, and kind of stupid and stupid.
For example, I teach the students math should be I teach students math .
For example, I want to reduce the number of F’s that I am receiving. Let’s fix the broken pipes that leak water. Teachers should respond to questions that students ask.
For example, Instead of I’ll take it into consideration , try I’ll consider it . Instead of I have chosen W.E. Wapskuller as my nomination for student body president, try I nominate W.E. Wapskuller.
For example, Instead of It has often been said by scholars and non scholars alike that the famous playwrite William Shakespeare certainly beyond a shadow of a doubt writes some great plays, try William Shakespeare writes great plays .

How to Implement these Essay Writing Tips

Change your attitude about essay writing. Stop using filler words. If your goal in writing an essay is to use the assigned number of words, then you will continue to write boring essays. You will never get better, and you will live a writing life of mediocrity. Intend to say something. Make every word count.
Write more than is necessary. If the assignment calls for 2 pages, write 3-4 pages. If the assignment is 500 words, write 800 words.
Edit for economy. Trim the excess. Begin by deleting entire sections or paragraphs, ones that do not add meaning or are not relevant. Eliminate sentences or phrases that contribute little or are redundant. Get rid of unnecessary words. Pretend you are a security guard and all modifiers (adjectives, adverbs, articles, etc.) are potential intruders. Make sure they belong. Finally, eliminate unnecessary words. You’ll notice you can say the same using 500 words that you did using 800 words.
Observe how improved your writing becomes. Once you form the habit of trusting your words, you’ll notice not having to cut as much. You’ll begin saying twice as much in half the time.

This post is part of the series: Writing Tips Your Teacher Never Told You

Dramatically improve your writing with simple changes.

Writing Tips: Personal Voice in Writing
Essay Writing Tips: Make Every Word Count
Improve Writing by Improving Word Choice
Basic Methods of Paragraph Development
How to Write a Persuasive Essay: Writing Tips

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Stuck on Your College Essay? 8 Tips for Overcoming Writer’s Block

←How to Write a Last Minute Essay

11 Tips for Proofreading and Editing Your Essay→

We’ve all had that feeling. You know you have to write an essay, a research paper, or even a story, but you can’t seem to string two thoughts together. It’s frustrating, it’s disheartening, and you don’t know how long it’ll be before inspiration strikes again.

This familiar feeling is commonly known as “writer’s block”. According to The New Yorker , it was once believed that writer’s block was caused by exhausting one’s supply of inspiration or a lack of external motivation. Now, thanks to the research of Jermone Singer and Michael Barrios, we know that there are four broad causes of writer’s block:

Excessively harsh self-criticism
Fear of being compared to other writers and their work
A lake of external motivation such as praise or attention
A lack of internal motivation such as a desire to share a story with the world

No matter which bucket your writer’s block falls under, you are certainly not alone, and you can definitely get your creative juices flowing again. Want to get over your writer’s block? Here are some proven techniques that will help re-inspire your writing.

Tips For Overcoming Writer’s Block On Your College Essay

1. freewrite .

A lot of people get stuck on the idea that what they write has to be perfect, and that pressure keeps them from writing down anything at all. If you find yourself feeling that weight on your shoulders, just take a step back for a minute. Give yourself some leeway to write whatever you want on the topic that you’re writing about, even if it’s grammatically incorrect or irrelevant. Just writing something down can often give the mind something to work with, and it can often lead to further inspiration.

Keep in mind that this freewriting can take whatever form you want it to. It can be full sentences, bullet points, even phrases randomly placed on a sheet of paper. Whatever gets your brain thinking in some capacity is a good step in overcoming writer’s block.

2. Respond to Brainstorm Questions

What if your writer’s block is so bad that you can’t even come up with a topic or subject for your essay? If you need a place to start, try thinking about something that is not directly related to your college essays. The easiest things to brainstorm are things that you know, like yourself. Here are some easy brainstorm questions to get you thinking:

Who are my favorite characters on TV, Literature, and movies? Why are these my favorite characters?
What is something that I would join a multi-day protest march for? Is there actually anything that I am passionate about?
Say I had to start a business selling something, and I would achieve the average level of success (financially, socially, etc) within that business, what would I choose to do?
What nonprofit or cause would I volunteer for assuming I could not choose an activity that I’ve already done or an activity available in my school?

While these questions may not be immediately relevant to the college essay you’re trying to write, they are introspective questions. So the more you think about answers to these questions, the more you are reflecting on yourself and your goals. If you can start writing down your answers, then you’re already well on your way to writing a personal statement or explaining your interests and passions to colleges.

3. Talk It Out With A Friend

College essays always ask you to reflect on yourself, and who knows you better than some of your closest friends? While they shouldn’t write your essay for you, they can be a good sounding board for ideas while giving you some ideas of their own. Try contacting someone you trust and asking them how they would answer the essay prompt if they were answering it for you. See what comes to their mind. They may bring up an interesting approach to an essay that you hadn’t even thought about, or remind you about an aspect of yourself that you hadn’t already considered. Their ideas could help spark your ideas.

Keep in mind, this doesn’t have to be a friend. It could be a close relative, a neighbor, or even a teacher. You just need to talk to somebody who knows you well and can give you insight on how you should approach the essay, not how they would.

4. Read a Memoir or Listen To a Podcast

Inspiration tends to fuel inspiration, and what better way to get inspired to write a creative essay about yourself than to read/listen to others’ creative essays about themselves. Perhaps listening to people tell their stories will give you some ideas on how you can tell your story for your college essays.

People share their stories in a variety of ways, both offline and online. You could read the personal memoir of someone who inspires you, or of someone whose story you relate to. If you want something that takes a little bit less time, you could listen to a podcast or watch a TED Talk of people telling their stories. Some other places to find inspiration are The New York Times’ Modern Love column or stories from The Moth . Most of the above are short and quick and could possibly spark inspiration for your own essay.

5. Change Your Environment

Maybe it’s not that you lack ideas or inspiration. Maybe you just can’t, for whatever reason, seem to get your ideas down on paper. That’s totally normal, and there’s a chance that your environment has something to do with it. If you’ve been brainstorming in your room for hours or if you’re not comfortable wherever you are, it’s going to be very difficult for you to be able to write creatively and vulnerably.

Try going somewhere else to write, preferably somewhere with fresh air and sunshine. A simple change of scenery can be surprisingly helpful in getting your brain to work again and letting the creativity come through. As long as you’re peaceful and comfortable wherever you go, it’s a good place to be writing.

6. Get Some Exercise

It is commonly accepted that exercise releases endorphins and other helpful chemicals that stimulate your brain and keep you happy. In this way, exercise can be very beneficial in the writing process. If you’re feeling frustrated because of your writer’s block, exercise can lift your mood and give you a much-needed break. If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, the chemicals in your brain can help spark some creative inspiration for your essay.

Of course, it might be a little bit difficult to go for a run or get exercise if you’re staying at home. Just remember that no form of exercise is better than another, and exercise doesn’t have to take up a lot of space. Do some jumping jacks in place, find an apartment-friendly workout video online, or just put on some music and dance in your room. The key is to get your body moving.

7. Use a Pen and Paper

Most students type their essays on computers instead of writing them down, and this makes sense. Almost all college applications are submitted online now, and it’s easier to share your essays with others for editing.

That being said, typing your essays may not be the best idea if you’re experiencing writer’s block. The blank screen in front of you may be a psychological deterrent to your creativity, and the internet may serve as a huge distraction.

If you find yourself unable to come up with something to write on a computer, try going old school and writing your ideas with a pen and paper. If you don’t have any of that around, try jotting down some ideas on a dry erase board or chalkboard. Writing your ideas instead of typing them encourages you to jot down shorter ideas and think in an entirely different way. This can be a beneficial switch for your brain as you attempt to overcome your writer’s block.

8. Work On A Different Section

Who says that you have to write your essay from start to finish? If you are having trouble coming up with the beginning, write the end or start somewhere in the middle! If you have an idea of what you want to say and how you want the essay to flow, you can write it down in whatever order you want. Write down the parts that come easiest to you and circle back to the parts you haven’t quite figured out yet. This way, you’ll at least have something written down, and you can use that something to inspire you to write the other parts of your essay later.

Again, your essay does not have to be perfect on the first draft. If the different parts of your essay don’t seem to fit together because you wrote them at different times, that’s okay. At least you’ll have all of the parts written down, and you can edit from there.

Want help with your college essays to improve your admissions chances? Sign up for your free CollegeVine account and get access to our essay guides and courses. You can also get your essay peer-reviewed and improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

43 Words You Should Cut From Your Writing Immediately

by Diana Urban | Sep 8, 2015

When revising any piece of writing — a novel, a news article, a blog post, marketing copy, etc. — there are certain words I delete to make the text stronger and cut my word count. When I’m writing a novel, one of my last drafts focuses on cutting these “filler” words. Removing them helps speed up the pacing of both action and dialogue. In my business writing or blog posts, cutting these words makes the content feel more polished (at least, IMO!). While this might not be the ultimate list of all words you could remove, these are the ones I personally look for when I’m revising, so I thought other writers out there would find this helpful! Also, my examples below might be exaggerated, but I hope they get the points across.

Always remember, though, that there is no one correct way to write. Writing is art, and it’s always subjective. If you want to include these words in whatever context (e.g. to make dialogue sound more natural) that’s 100% your call! This is just my personal list of words I try to limit my usage of as much as possible, and I’ve shared it here in case it’s helpful to anyone else.

Words you should delete

Really, very. These are useless modifiers. You should be able to find stronger verbs or adjectives for whatever you’re trying to enhance. For example, “He ran very quickly along the really long field.” can be, “He sprinted across the vast field.”

That. If a sentence still makes sense after removing “that,” delete it. For example, “This is the most amazing blog post that I’ve ever read.” can be, “This is the most amazing blog post I’ve ever read.”

Just. I have a hard time removing “just,” especially in dialogue. But for the most part, you don’t need it, and too many can make your dialogue or prose repetitive.

Then. When showing a sequence of events, either remove “then” or try using “and” instead of “then.” Using “then” frequently sounds repetitive and even juvenile. “I shut the car door, then tripped over the sidewalk. Then Bob pointed and laughed, and then my cheeks flushed.” sounds better as, “I shut the car door and tripped over the sidewalk. My cheeks flushed as Bob pointed and laughed.”

Totally, completely, absolutely, literally. These words don’t add information to a sentence. For example, “The box was completely full of clothes.” reads the same as, “The box was full of clothes.” or better yet, “The box was stuffed with clothes.”

Definitely, certainly, probably, actually, basically, virtually. Again, these words don’t add information. If the sentence makes sense without these words, remove them.

Start, begin, began, begun. These words are unnecessary unless an interruption to the action soon occurs. But for the most part, you can remove these words.

Rather, quite, somewhat, somehow. A movie doesn’t have to be “rather dull,” it can just be “dull.” Delete!

Said, replied, asked, and any other dialogue tag. Dialogue tags slow your pacing and distract readers from the conversation. You can keep these tags for the first couple sentences of dialogue, but once you established who says the first couple lines, readers can follow the conversation back-and-forth for themselves. Also opt for surrounding dialogue with action instead of dialogue tags. Action will let us see what the characters are doing besides talking, and offer character trait information as well. For example:

“I don’t know where I’m going,” said Derek.

“You have a map,” said Ramona. “Figure it out.”

“Haven’t you been here before?” asked Derek.

“It’s been twenty years,” said Ramona. “How am I supposed to remember?”

Derek frowned at the street sign overhead. “I don’t know where I’m going.”

“You have a map.” Ramona took a drag from her cigarette. “Figure it out.”

“Haven’t you been here before?”

“It’s been twenty years. How am I supposed to remember?”

Down, up. Usually, these words are unnecessary and you can remove them. For example, “I sat down on the floor.” could be, “I sat on the floor.” and “I stood up.” could be, “I stood.”

Wonder, ponder, think, thought, feel, felt, understand, realize. When you add any of these terms, you’re removing readers from the introspection and adding useless words. For example, “I wondered whether Johnny was the murderer.” could be, “Was Johnny the murderer?” If the narrator questions, “Was Johnny the murderer?” it’s self-explanatory that the narrator is wondering it. This also helps readers feel closer to your narrator, and more involved in the speculation.

Breath, breathe, inhale, exhale. These are far too commonly used by many authors to describe character internals, including me! Instead of deleting, you’ll have to find an alternative way to describe how a character is reacting to whatever has made them breathe quickly, exhale sharply, or “Let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.” Ick! I highly recommend The Emotion Thesaurus in paperback, not digital, so you can skim through any time.

Shrug, nod, reach. Every author has her own quirks, and over time, you should become familiar with your own. These are a few of mine — in my first drafts, I have characters shrug, nod, and reach for things way too often — and I know a lot of other writers include these, too. Always have second readers, whether you’re writing a novel or blog post. They’ll be able to point out actions that happen too frequently better than you can, because you’ll usually be too close to your own writing to notice.

How to find these words in your writing

If you’re using Word, it’s easy to find these useless words. First, make sure to select a highlight color from the toolbar besides white.

Click Edit > Find > Advanced Find and Replace . Click Replace and the little down arrow.

Enter the word you’re seeking in both the Find what: and Replace with: fields. When your cursor is still in the Replace with: field, click Format > Highlight .

Click Replace All . Repeat this process for every word you want to find in your document. Then you can scroll through your writing and easily spot these words, and decide if you want to delete them. Doing a Find/Replace to delete these words isn’t a good option because there will be some instances when simply removing the word muddles the meaning of your sentence. Sometimes a sentence will need to be reworked.

Image via Cheezburger .

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Word lists, cheat sheets, and sometimes irreverent reviews of writing rules. kathy steinemann is the author of the writer's lexicon series..

30+ Ways to Avoid Repetition of “I” in First-Person Writing

First-person narrative engages readers, who experience the world from your narrator’s perspective — including intimate thoughts and feelings. However, it’s easy to overplay constructions such as I did this and I thought that and I wanted something else.

Many people claim the I, I, I approach is permissible because I is an invisible word like said .

Don’t believe them.

Prose or poetry with an overabundance of the same words or structures will seem off. Readers might not be able to tell you what’s wrong, but they know they’re unsettled by something .

Consider the Following Two Story Snippets

I answered the irresistible beckoning of the backyard. I watched brightly colored birds there frolicking in the breeze as they fluttered toward the creek. I closed my eyes and felt the warmth of the sun . I smelled the fragrance of the clover underneath my feet, a fragrance so sweet I could almost taste it. I heard fledgling robins twittering in a nearby tree.

I thought to myself , This is the life. I knew I never wanted to leave this place.

I decided to phone the real estate agent and tell her to take the FOR SALE sign off my lawn. She acted as though she had expected my call.

I told her in a firm voice that my mind was made up, and yes, I understood she would still receive her full commission.

I realized I didn’t care about the money.

The backyard beckoned with its irresistible sights and sounds. Frolicking in the breeze, brightly colored birds fluttered toward the creek. The sun warmed my closed eyelids, and my nostrils were flooded by the sweet fragrance of clover underneath my feet, a fragrance so sweet it almost sugared the taste buds. In a nearby tree, fledgling robins twittered.

This is the life. Who in their right mind would ever leave this place?

The real estate agent acted as though she had expected my call when asked to take the FOR SALE sign off the lawn.

My voice was firm. “Yes, my mind is made up. … Understood. … You’ll still receive your full commission.”

Hah! Who cares about the money?

Beware Verbosity

Rewrites could result in bloat, and the wrong words could make you seem pretentious or long-winded.

The second snippet reduces, rather than increases, word count.

The first example would be even shorter with the removal of to myself. Who else would you think to? Your editor? Your cat? Or maybe your dictation software?

Did You Notice the Changes?

Almost every sentence in the first example begins with I.

In the rewrite, note the removal of several filtering phrases:

I watched I … felt I smelled I could … taste I heard I thought I knew I decided I told I understood I realized

Whenever you filter thoughts and senses through your narrator’s eyes, you distance readers from your story — like a selfie of a selfie. Use the direct approach instead.

Passive voice appeared once to vary sentence structure. “I smelled the fragrance of the clover underneath my feet ” became “my nostrils were flooded by the sweet fragrance of clover underneath my feet.”

A so-called rule of writing is not to use passive voice. However, you’ll find times such as this when it’s warranted.

The phrase could also have been written as “my nostrils flooded with the sweet fragrance of clover underneath my feet.”

Reread the examples. Compare again. You’ll notice subtle changes that make the text flow smoother.

A Partial List of Filter Words

Watch for these or their equivalents. They all have the potential to weaken your writing:

A to W assume, be able to, believe, can, decide, experience, feel (or feel like) , hear, know, look, note, notice, realize, remember, see, seem, sound (or sound like), taste, think, touch, watch, wonder

Change the Focus

Just because you’re writing in first person doesn’t mean you, the storyteller, should be the most important character in the piece.

If you concentrate on the activities of other characters, readers will feel as though they are you. They still know you’re the narrator, but you become invisible.

Try These I Alternatives

I agree: We are in agreement

I am convinced that: In my opinion

I am sure that: Correct me if my opinion is wrong

I believe: The experts say (or, in Dothraki , “It is known”)

I decided: It was my intention

I disagree: You are wrong

I dislike that: That’s not for me

I don’t know: That’s an excellent question

I feel: In light of the evidence

I have experience in: My experience includes

I interpret the results: The results indicate

I like: It’s one of my favorites

I was nearly hit by a car: A car nearly hit me

I’ll show you: The report will show you

I’m hungry: My stomach is growling

Beware the Me-My Snare

In an attempt to remove instances of I, you might introduce excessive repetition of me and my .

For instance, “I felt an irresistible urge to buy the shoes” could become “An irresistible urge to buy the shoes came over me .”

“I saw three chickadees sitting on the fence” could end up as “Three chickadees sitting on the fence came into my view.”

As shown by the strikeout, you can often omit my .

Rely on Your Ears

They’re excellent critics.

Read your text out loud or harness your computer’s text-to-speech capabilities and listen to your writing . Repetitions that hide from notice during a silent read often become obvious and irritating when processed by the ears .

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28 thoughts on “ 30+ Ways to Avoid Repetition of “I” in First-Person Writing ”

how can we replace i in this sentence i had a dream to spend a beautiful day at an island

Sleep, peaceful sleep, filled the night, interrupted only by the dream of an idyllic day on a tiny island.

Hello Kathy,

Me again. Since reading your article, I have made a greater conscious effort in avoiding the use of “I” in my first-person stories. However, in doing so, I’m noticing I am starting to use “-ing” words to begin sentences more often, and I understand that’s something to use sparingly in fiction writing.

I may be over-analysing my works (that’s a bad habit of mine), but if using “I” in a sentence, whether it’s beginning a sentence or in the middle of it, creates a clearer structured sentence when compared to using a “-ing” word, would you say it’s okay to use “I”, or to try and figure out another way of structuring the sentence to avoid either?

On a side note, sometimes when I do avoid both, the sentence gets written in passive voice, as that seems to be the only way to structure it, while keeping it clear and precise. For example, a sentence within a story of mine read: “Rather than wasting time on breakfast, I can use it for more important things, such as training.” After re-editing it, it became: “Rather than wasting time on breakfast, it can be used for more important things, such as training.”

I’m really just trying to determine out of “I”, “-ing”, or passive voice, which is the best to use. Apologies if this is unclear. Sometimes that’s my thought process for you. There’s logic in there, but you’ve gotta dig past all the dribble to find it.

Kind regards, Footrot Flats

Phrases such as the following can help eliminate some instances of “I”:

– experience has shown – statistics indicate – events suggest – circumstances often require

Regarding your sentence: “Rather than wasting time on breakfast, it can be used for more important things, such as training.”

Try something like: “[Whatever ‘it’ is] can focus on activities, such as training, which are more important than breakfast.”

Remember: The goal is not to eliminate words but to eliminate their overuse.

Thank you for the response, Kathy!

I’ll keep those phrases in mind and see if they can be used anywhere that fits. Thank you for the suggestion as well.

I understand it’s okay to use “I”, just not too often, which is what I’m trying to do, but also figuring out how often “I” is fine to use. Finding that ‘Goldilocks Zone’ is my next challenge. If it’s used once every few paragraphs, it doesn’t stick out at me, but if I see two (or more) I’s in the same field of view, that’s when I tend to change it.

I may or may not pop up again sometime in the future. If I don’t, your article and advise has helped me immensely, so thank you for the time and effort you have put in. It’s much appreciated.

All the best, and stay safe too! Footrot Flats

When writing stories, I’ve always tried avoiding the usage of I’s (same goes for adverbs). 95% of the time, there’s an alternative way of describing a scene, whether it’s action, thoughts or dialogue, but something, every now and then, there just doesn’t seem to be a way to avoid using I (or an adverb).

Like adverbs, would you say it’s okay to use ‘I’ sparingly?

In some cases, the word ‘I’ gets replaced with an adverb, and then I enter a never-ending cycle.

Your approach is astute, FF.

Words exist for a reason, including adverbs and I . The goal is not to eliminate them but to reduce their frequency and make them “invisible” to readers. That turns them into useful tools.

Good luck with your writing, and please stay safe! (Exclamation points, em dashes, and parentheses are more useful tools — when used sparingly. 🙂 )

Thank you for the reply Kathy.

I agree that making them “invisible” rather than eliminating them completely is the better approach. Everything would provide a greater impact when used sparingly.

All the best, and stay safe too. Footrot Flats

Hello Kathy, the article above really helped me but i am still just a little confused. . . . would it be alright if you could un-I-ify my story. i haven’t written much and i probably wont be using it, but just to get a rough idea on how i could do it.

I was sitting on the train minding my own business and reading a book, when I casually looked out the window. It was pretty dark and rainy, but I could still see the blurry silhouette of the woods turning into a dim lighted village. As I was about to turn away, I started to sweat and felt a pounding in my head. My heart felt as if I had just run a marathon 3 times and I could hear my blood rushing through my ears. My hands shook and my breathing turned uneven. My vision went all blurry. I had to get away. I did not want to be on a train while having a panic attack. I stood up and hit my knee on the table but I ignored the pain. I grabbed my book and backpack and yelled for assistance. An assistant quickly rushed over and asked if I needed anything. I told her to stop the train. “But ma’am, we don’t have a station here, we can’t stop here-” “Just stop the train. NOW! Please!” I cut her off. “Ma’am, are you feeling ok? You should probably sit down.” She offers. “STOP THE TRAIN! NOW!” I shout. She nodded to me and swiveled around and quickly rushed to the front of the train. My mouth started to feel dry and I could feel tears coming starting to form at the corners of my eyes. By this time I was shaking. I turned to the nearest compartment and grabbed the glass of water on the table. I took one big sip and looked up at the young bloke who was sitting there. My mouth felt a bit better knowing it was hydrated and I could say my words without them sounding raspy. “I am so sorry. I really needed that drink.” I grabbed my backpack and took out £2 and put it down on the table. “I’m really sorry about the drink, I know you paid for that so here’s the money. I know it was 3 pound but this is all I can find right now.” I blurted out. I could feel the train slowing down and felt nauseous. I sat down in the young blokes compartment seat and looked down. I could feel the guy’s eyes staring at the top of my head which made me feel uncomfortable.

sorry if thats too much. thank you 🙂

Thanks for stopping by, Astoria.

I’ve retired from editing, but you can join online critique groups free of charge.

Scribophile and Critique Circle are two popular sites.

Good luck with your writing, and stay safe!

Undertaking a short story/flash fiction assignment for Open University. Word count is up to 800 words. The premise is in hand, and I’ve done a plan.

Really want to do it in First POV, though I know third is easy to fall back on. Your advice is brilliant, I am just so nervous of the structure and grammar. I don’t envision that creative writing is for me, as the strain of English Lit etc scares me.

You can do this, Louise. I hope you’ll be able to use some of the advice in this post.

Good luck, and stay safe!

This is so frustrating, As I edit my work I can’t think of anything to replace my ‘I’ overuse!!!

Think less of how you control the action and more about how the action happens, period. The suggestions in this article will help.

Thanks for stopping by, Max!

Great article. Chuck Palahnuik is an expert at submerging the ‘I’, and I’m constantly perplexed about how to avoid the pitfalls you mentioned when following his advice. This has helped a great deal.

Thanks, Tom. May your muse be ever with you — and stay safe.

I get it, I just don’t know how to repair the problem. Online English class?

There’s no magic one-size-fits-all approach. You have to examine each occurrence to determine a suitable remedy. This requires time and effort; but as you edit, you become more proficient at creating solutions.

Thanks for stopping by!

Can you please give me some examples of books written in first person, without the overuse of ‘I’? My 13 year old daughter is in an Academic Excellence class and has had her eyes opened and mind blown buy how removing the ‘I’s, it makes you live the story. She has Aspergers and dyslexia and has always loved writing, it is her get away. We would be truly grateful for some guidance.

Warmest wishes Michelle Australia

Hi, Michelle. Thanks for stopping by.

The books that stand out in my mind are To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, all The Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins, and Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. They should keep your daughter busy for a while.

Thank you very much Kathy. I am truly grateful.

May you too keep safe.

Warmest wishes Michelle

Thank you so much. I always put I’s in my stories and it bothered me because ‘I’ use it repeatedly. That’s when ‘I’ started to notice it also want to thank you for the alternatives to making my story look as if a professional wrote it. Well I’m no professional but hopefully one day. 4 years later and came across this website. Thank you btw. (PS I was embarrassed now because I used my I’s a lot in this comment lolz so I had to fix it to make it right ) Anyways I’m forever grateful and have a good year in 2020!

Thanks for stopping by, Nora. Yes, those Is can be slippery little creatures. You’ve made the most important step by recognizing the problem.

You have a great 2020 too, and may the muses favor your writing!

Excellent, as per usual. 🙂

Thanks, Jenn!

Another excellent post, Kathy. This is exactly what I was looking for. As an added bonus, I now know what filter words are. Time for another edit on my latest WIP. (Heck – I’ve just noticed two I’s in the above comment. Oh no, there’s another two!)

Thanks, Tom. I laughed out loud as I was reading your reply. Next week I’ll be posting an open letter to book pirates. Arrgh! Three I ‘s.

Let’s see …

As my eyes scrutinized your reply, a humongous LOL burst from my lips. Next week’s blog post will feature an open letter to book pirates.

Doesn’t have the same snap, does it?

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In the current study, several limitations of the research are necessary to mention. While random sampling will ensure representativeness and a low level of bias, there is a risk of limited outcomes in quantitative analysis. Since the questionnaires use structured and close-ended questions, there is a possibility of limited outcomes, which means that the results cannot always represent the actual occurrence in generalized forms.

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Full text: Jeddah University: Sports Health Education Instructional Program - 4403 Words | Free Paper Example

Reduced version:

Since the questionnaires use structured and close-ended questions, there is a possibility of limited outcomes, which means that the results cannot always represent the actual occurrence in generalized forms. Another significant limitation of the study is the limited availability of secondary data that can be applied to the research context. While the subject matter is widespread, there has been little research on implementing a sports education instructional program at educational facilities.

10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count | The University of Adelaide
Top Words to Avoid in Academic Writing | Useful Advices & Tricks
Summarizing: How to effectively summarize the work of others | SFU Library
The Writing Center | When to Summarize, Paraphrase, and...

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How to Cure Writer’s Block: 23 Proven Ideas that Actually Work

T he fact is that almost every writer faces writer’s block at some point in their career. Deadlines, storylines or even airlines can be the cause of this intellectual affliction. Writer’s block is real and can greatly affect your output.

But, every writer of note has willed themselves out of this mental stupor. Writer’s block doesn’t have to stop a budding Homer in their tracks.

There are many ways to overcome this form of procrastination that works wonders.

Today, let’s look at 23 ways that prove effective to help you get rid of writer’s block.

But first…

writer's block DEFINITION

What is writer's block.

Writer’s block is when a writer experiences creative slowdown or can't create new work; essentially an artistic full-stop. It’s the inability of an author to compose new, original material that moves a narrative forward. The term writer’s block is used in reference to any writing or composition process where creativity is stunted. The production of new work grinds to a halt. It’s often referred to as creative constipation. Frustration, fear, anger, dread, and other strong emotions sometimes accompany it.

What causes writer's block?

Distractions
Physical illness
Bills piling up
Procrastination
Intimidation

1. How to cure writer's block

Read for inspiration .

One of the best ways to overcome writer’s block is to read. Whether your favorite author or someone new, reading is a reliable cure.

When you take in another writer’s words on the page — a writer who has in all likelihood overcome the block as well, at some point — it challenges and motivates you to get the words out.

The inspiration for many writers is their own writing heroes. Shakespeare to Faulkner, Byron to Plath, all have their own styles and voices that have nourished generations of creatives. Writer’s block gloms onto the idle, not the well-read.

You could open the best screenwriting books for writer’s block help. So pick up a Kindle or an actual bound book, and kickstart the motivation.

How to cure writers block - Lao Tzu - StudioBinder

“The journey of a thousand words begins with the first.”

Free Seinfeld Script: "The Switch" →
Download the La La Land Screenplay for Free →
FREE Pulp Fiction Screenplay →

2. how to get rid of writer's block

Write away your writer's block.

Even if you copy words from another source, getting something down on your screen or pad is a useful tool to get rid of blockage.

What is writer’s block, after all, but a stoppage of writing?

So do the opposite: just write.

Try transcribing a poem or song lyrics and see what happens.

Whip up a to-do list, an outline for another project or story, a free-association paragraph or two. You’ll discover it goes a long way.

Just as the adage “fake it 'til you make it” fits the bill in business, it also works with writing. Get the writing muscles moving and your brain will catch up before you know it.

There is nothing bad about writing something that, on the surface, appears unusable. It’s practice. You’re training your mind and fingertips for what matters.

If Chris Brown gets stuck in writer's block, he'll just "write it out."

Chris Brown's cure for writer's block is to "just write it out!"

3. how to get rid of writer's block, use a writing prompt.

Writing prompts are an effective way to overcome writer’s block. Having another brain issue a challenge can get a lot of writers going, even you.

Writer’s D igest and Reddit both offer a roundup of prompts to get you started. You may even consider single words, colors, or phrases as prompts and take it from there.

Prompts from writer-specific sites can be more in-tune with the level at which professional writers work. But the whimsy of other random sites and ideas can also do much to alleviate writer’s block.

This is basically looking without, instead of looking within, for what to do when you have writer’s block. Taking the pressure off yourself can free your mind and get the ball (- point pen) rolling.

“The wonderful thing about writing is that there is always a blank page waiting. The terrifying thing about writing is that there is always a blank page waiting.”

― J.K. Rowling

4. How to get over writer's block

Develop a character.

Since you want to know how to get over your block, create a character who already has the answers.

The character you describe in writing doesn’t even need to have meaning, only features. A woman with red hair, green eyes, and a pout. A pimple-faced man in a trucker hat. Throw in a verb and a location and you have the beginning of a story.

“A woman with red hair, green eyes, and a pout stands in front of her bedroom mirror …”

“A pimple-faced man in a trucker hat sprints down the sidewalk …”

The character doesn’t necessarily have to know all the right answers.

You can even create a version of yourself. Some of the best characters came about this way. If the character turns into a cure, then you’ve created the right character.

You can even use a character development worksheet to get this process going even faster.

Free downloadable bonus

Download free character development sheet.

If you're going to develop a new character, it's critical to lay out the ins and outs for a fully-formed character. Download our FREE, worksheet to get you started.

TV Development: Creating Characters →
How To Write The Best Character Arc with Examples →
Free Character Development Worksheet →

5. how to cure writer's block

Try a different genre.

If you want to figure out how to get past writer’s block, we recommend switching up your writing genre. If you are a screenwriter, write a short story or essay. If you’re a novelist, write a poem.

It’s almost as like taking a vacation from your usual writing style and vocation to explore a new voice. It is a new way to interpret the world. Also, you might consider writing your same format, but with a different style or approach.

Expository writing can be tiresome. Try a few lines of descriptive text. Next, maybe a persuasive argument within your story.

Writer’s block shuts the door. These style exercises open windows.

6. how to overcome writer's block

Put together a puzzle.

Working with other parts of the brain can be a big help.

Whether it’s a jigsaw puzzle, tangram, sudoku, or crossword, puzzling your brain stimulates dopamine and gives you a creativity boost.

Furthermore, the analytical nature of a puzzle bleeds into the writer’s craft. Putting yourself in a headspace to analyze or assess can lead to overcoming writer’s block.

Read More: How To Become a Writer →
Read More: 30 Ways to brainstorm short film ideas →
Download: A FREE Story Outline Template →

7. how to get rid of writer's block

Change your music.

Playing music can be a good method for how to get over writer’s block. If it’s not working, change the music.

Now, change it again. Deejay your way out of a corner.

Music has been a cure to spur creativity ever since authors put quill to paper. Music not only calms the savage beast, but it also inspires the blocked writer.

We’re partial to Bach for curing writer’s block but AC/DC may do for you

Youtube and Spotify playlists exist that focus on writer’s block help. Ultimately, only you can determine what music works best.

A lot of writers swear by Elgar or Handel when crafting period-specific tales, for example.

8. HOW TO GET over OF WRITER'S BLOCK

Practice another art form.

This trick is one of the most fun ways to get the creative juices flowing. Singing, painting, sculpting, or dancing will get your creative juices flowing. Bust out the watercolors. Take out crayons and doodle away.

Download the Pulp Fiction script and act out the scene between Vincent and Jules as they clean up the car.

Practicing another art also gives you a built-in writing prompt: “A writer dances in the living room, loud music shaking the floor …”

You get the idea.

“Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.”

— Charles Bukowski

9. HOW TO GET RID OF WRITER'S BLOCK

Find a new hobby.

A craft or hobby can be the best answer for beating the creative blues.

Whittling, cobbling, and cooking all count as hobbies! So do gardening, knitting, and collecting snow globes.

A hobby or craft gives the mind a sense of workflow and completion. They require attention. They force your brain to focus.

Focus is an enemy of writer’s block and a friend to the writer.

So if you don’t have a hobby, maybe it’s time to find one. Your world and your writing will broaden. Try your local community college, which undoubtedly has an array of classes.

Some people knit, others whittle to get rid of writer’s block

10. getting over writer's block, watch a short film.

Watching a short film, a concise and contained story, is a surefire solution to moving forward with whatever you’re writing.

Just like features, short films provide different perspectives, new ways of thinking, emotion, and closure ― but in less time.

Voila! You’ve just written your way out of the doldrums.

Take a look at a genre-specific short film. Make a quick outline of it. Then expand on the story in a few sentences. What happens next?

What is writer’s block? Bryan Cranston knows all too well.

The Best Short Films of All Time →
How to Brainstorm Short Film Ideas →
Rules for Writing Award-Worthy Short Films →

11. GETTING OVER WRITER'S BLOCK

Try cleaning your house.

Artists tend to work in spaces consumed by things. If this sounds like you, try a quick tidy-up. You might find that un-cluttering your workspace also de-clutters your mind. Cleaning gives you a “fresh start” and might lead to overcoming writer’s block.

This is a question of taste. If you discover that clutter works for you, by all means, keep it messy.

But shift your clutter around. Seeing your area, even your mountains of clutter, in a new light is what you’re after.

When afternoon sun reflects off the south face of your newly rearranged laundry pile, you might get inspired.

Since you need to know how to get over unproductively, we’ll emphasize right here that cleaning or rearranging your stuff is a go-to cure.

“Breaking through writer’s block is like thinking out of the box: Both require an ability to imagine a world outside your four walls or rearranging them to get a better view.”

— Susan J. McIntire

12. HOW TO CURE WRITER'S BLOCK

Create a story circle.

The story circle is a storytelling tool and it helps you improve the structure of a story and was originally based on Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey.

As a writing exercise, this can be effective to write out your story and think of all the elements holistically as a way to kick your writer's block.

Dan Harmon's story circle

Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey in 17 Steps →
Internal and External Conflict Can Energize Your Story →
FREE Download: Script Breakdown Sheet Template →

13. GETTING OVER WRITER'S BLOCK

Complete a simple task.

Completing a simple task is another way to move forward and get past writer’s block.

Taking out the trash, scrambling eggs, and watering plants all have the potential to impact creativity. You’ll also be able to scratch a chore off your list.

Making coffee is a simple and quick task. It also leads beautifully to the next item on our list of how to get over writer’s block.

Whatever your simple task is, make sure it isn’t stress-inducing in any way. Stressful tasks can be counterproductive. Multitasking, too, is not the best answer to cure your block. Stick to one thing.

14. GETTING OVER WRITER'S BLOCK

Make a writing schedule.

Does a routine sound boring?

As a writer, a routine can be your best friend.

Sitting down to write at the same time every day, and for the same length of time, forces the creative mind to produce the goods. If you go into it treating writing as your job, then you are simply more likely to get your job done.

That doesn’t mean it has to be a chore or a hassle. The fun and inspiration will come. Routine is the process you use to get to that place of fun and inspiration.

Your schedule can be your best cure when the muse won’t visit.

Your schedule doesn’t have to be ironclad, but routine and consistency are what you’re going for here.

Every film needs a shooting schedule .

Every writer needs a writing schedule. Routine is not a dirty word.

“Writer’s block? I’ve heard of this. This is when a writer cannot write, yes? Then that person isn’t a writer anymore. I’m sorry, but the job is getting up in the f***ing morning and writing for a living.”

— Warren Ellis

15. Writer's block cure

Practice a new language.

This is one of our favorites hacks for keeping pen to paper. The beauty of French, the structure of Japanese, the melody of Italian, the vowels of Arabic — learning another language, or involving a language you already have mastered, can give you a big creative push.

Maybe one of the characters you’ve created speaks another language. This backstory alone can get a writer over a hurdle. Mashable has tips on where to look to learn a new language.

Another hack is to take a poem or phrase in another language and use it as the focus of your story.

For instance, je ne sais quois … What does the French term mean? How can it be applied to your work?

Research the history of the phrase, and your writing will take on a whole new life.

How do you say writer’s block in Swedish?

16. writer's block cure, drink some coffee.

We aren’t the first to suggest coffee to boost output. Caffeine does wonders stimulating the mind. It spurs writers in every medium to get moving. Literally, it’s a diuretic.

If caffeine isn’t for you, other natural stimulants exist. Ginseng, ginkgo biloba, and ― oh yes, wait for it ― dark chocolate all act as natural stimulants

“I don’t sit around waiting for passion to strike me. I keep working steadily because I believe it is our privilege as humans to keep making things. Most of all, I keep working because I trust that creativity is always trying to find me, even when I have lost sight of it.”

― Elizabeth Gilbert

17. GETTING OVER WRITER'S BLOCK

Change your scenery.

This seems like a no-brainer in our quest for a writer’s block cure. Still, most people get stuck in a rut that has less to do with what they’re doing than where they’re doing it.

Even something as simple as changing the direction you usually face when you’re writing can do wonders for your creative energy.

It can also do wonders for your characters. Travel is an eye-opening experience.

This is true with the people you come across. Meeting and observing new people in new places will get you past writer’s block.

What is writer’s block? It’s quicksand.

What is travel? It’s movement and a lifeline.

“There's a lot of optimism in changing scenery, in seeing what's down the road."

― Conor Oberst

18. WRITER'S BLOCK cure

Get some exercise.

Exercise does wonders for the body and mind. Endorphins give you a runner’s high, which can translate to productivity and energy in all other areas of life and work.

You don’t have to run a marathon or do hot yoga to get the blood pumping. Try alternating between 10 push-ups and 10 sit-ups every 10 minutes over the course of an hour.

It’ll do wonders.

Pick something easy. Even stretching helps. Remember, objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Remaining sedentary will make sure your writer’s block doesn’t go anywhere, either.

How to overcome writer’s block? Get fit!

19. writer's block cure, go outside and play.

Let’s face it, if you’re stuck at a computer with a bad case of the blank page, it might mean that you aren’t living enough to write about living. What can you do?

Get outside and live a little. Or, go outside and live a lot!

Laughter and joy in the real world can be the perfect antidote to the crime series you’re creating. Even a writer’s group counts as play. You’re engaging, communicating ― living.

Join a group of writers to get rid of writer's block.

20. WRITER'S BLOCK CURE

Dictate and record.

Maybe the most fun way to overcome your impediment is to tell yourself a story out loud and record it, giving you a solid place to start.

Even kicking off with “once upon a time” requires creative expansion. Pretend you have an audience. Children, old folks, tourists, a judge: your imagined audience can guide your tone.

You might find that, for now, it’s easier to tell a story than to write it. Use what you’ve got!

If you want to get over your block? Tell yourself a story.

21. WRITER'S BLOCK CURE

Have a cocktail to cure writer’s block.

I don’t advocate resorting to alcohol all the time, but sipping a cocktail has certainly helped many a writer.

There is a fine line between having a drink to loosen up and being unable to type from blurry-eyed tequila-vision . You don’t want to spend every waking hour seeing the world at a dutch angle .

So you’ve taken a sip. Now use your drink as a writing prompt. What does it look like, taste like, and feel like as you swallow?

Hey doc, I’ve got the writer’s block.

Take two sips and call me in the morning.

“When you work hard all day with your head and know you must work again the next day what else can change your ideas and make them run on a different plane like whiskey? When you are cold and wet what else can warm you?”

— Ernest Hemingway

22. WRITER'S BLOCK CURE

Go through a guided visualization.

If you feel a creative block approaching, it could also be due to overthinking. Another way to clear your mind is through guided visualization — which is easier than mediating and a great way to activate the imagination.

This could take about 10-minutes, but it can be a surefire way of shaking you out of things.

Follow along right here:

Guided visualization to cure writer's block

23. writer's block cure, clear your mind to cure writer's block.

The truth is, prayer, meditation, yoga, or whatever you want to do to center your creative mind, can be clutch as a cure for writer’s block. Meditative activities such as prayer help to center the creative mind.

The clean slate in your head can inspire you when you face the clean slate of the page.

How to overcome writer’s block? Meditate

Tips for writing short films.

We’ve given you ideas for overcoming writer’s block. Try one, try a few, or try them all. But most importantly keep writing. Make note of what works for you — we promise something will.

But make sure you realize that when you can’t create, it’s usually a mental block more than creative one. Now that you’ve kicked the muse to the curb, it’s time to focus your writing even more. Learn the best tips for writing a short film that gets noticed.

Up Next: Write a Short Film that Gets Noticed →

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30 Ways To Overcome Writer’s Block

Everyone struggles with writer’s block from time to time. The hardest part is when you have a tight deadline looming on you, and all you have is a blank paper staring back at you. Writer’s block is every writer’s nightmare. The good news is that we have found over 30 proven ways to overcome writer’s block and to help you get back on track with your writing.

What is Writer’s Block?

The dictionary definition of writer’s block is that it is a condition where you are unable to think of what to write or how to write it down ( Cambridge Dictionary ). Whether you’re writing an essay for school or a creative piece for pleasure, writer’s block can happen at any time. There are, of course, some scenarios that make writer’s block worse. One example is when you have just thought of a really cool idea, but it isn’t fully formed yet. When an idea isn’t completely clear, it can make it really hard for you to write it down on paper. This is where writer’s block comes in and makes life harder for you!

Another scenario is when you want everything to be perfect before you write it down. When you focus on perfection too much, it’s near impossible to write anything down. You need the opening line to be perfect, character names, setting and so on. All these details can be overwhelming especially when you’re aiming for perfection. That’s why it’s always important to remember that your story can have many drafts and versions of it. You don’t have to hit publish on the very first draft of your story – keep editing it until you’re happy with it!

So, how do we overcome writer’s block and get our writing back on track? It’s actually not that difficult at all. Especially with these 30 techniques for overcoming writer’s block.

Check out this master list of 105 creative writing exercises to help you beat writer’s block for good!

Dealing With Writer’s Block in 30 Ways

Here are 30 ways to get around writer’s block and beat it:

Stick to a routine: Create a writing routine for yourself. This means that you should ideally set aside some time every day to focus on your writing. You don’t have to write a long essay every day. Short pieces of poetry or a funny little story will do. Just develop a writing routine and stick to it. And soon your mind will be ready and charged to start writing some real stuff down.
Don’t start at the beginning: The beginning can be boring. Especially when you just thought of a really cool fight scene that you can write about. One way to keep your writing moving along is to start with the cool scenes first. The scenes that you’’ enjoy writing about. Then you can deal with the boring parts of the story another day when you feel more in the mood to write.
Write some messy words: Achieve the opposite of perfection. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or whether a sentence makes sense or not. Just get some words down – Even if it’s a load of gibberish. You can worry about making sense of them later on.
Use bullet points: You just had the greatest idea ever. Instead of trying to write the whole story down, quickly jot down the main points of this idea. Develop your idea and plan it out any way you like. Then when it comes to writing your story or novel , you’ll have a better understanding of it.
Write something else: You might not feel like continuing that short story about cats. But that doesn’t mean you can’t write at all. Try writing something else entirely like a haiku or starting a new short story about dinosaurs instead. After a while, you might be in the mood to continue writing that cat story that you left for a while.
Switch your writing tools: Switching your writing tools can be a great way to ignite your writing again. If you’ve been using a pen and paper for too long, try switching to a word document on your computer. Alternatively, you might want to use a specialised writing tool like Imagine Forest to bring back the fun in writing!
Change your location: Writing for hours or days in your bedroom can get a little tiring and stuffy. Try switching up your writing location when you’re getting frustrated. For example go write in your kitchen, your garden or even at the park. Changing writing locations can bring back life to your writing and help you deal with writer’s block.
Do non-writing activities: Writing can start feeling like a chore when you write for too long. It’s a good idea to balance your writing with some non-writing activities, like playing sports, cooking, going out, listening to music and so forth. After taking a well-earned break from writing you should feel more enthusiastic when you come back.
Take a visual approach: Words, words and more words. It can be tiresome looking at letters and words all day long. Break the cycle by drawing out your scenes, creating brainstorms or sketching out your characters. Storyboarding can also be a great visual activity for writers.
Determine the root cause: Think about why you have writer’s block in the first place. Some common reasons include lack of inspiration, feeling tired, not knowing how to develop your story or just feeling pressure from other writers. Write your feelings and concerns down on a piece of paper. And then think of possible ways to fix these problems. For example, if you feel tired, then you might want to take a break from your writing. Alternatively, if it’s a lack of inspiration, then focus on finding inspiration through writing prompts or these activities on how to come up with ideas .
Change your persona: Instead of writing like yourself, imagine how it would be to write if you were a famous writer like Dr. Seuss or Roald Dahl . If being another writer is difficult, then pretend to be another famous character or celebrity. If you were Elsa from Frozen, how would she write a story? What words would she use and what would she write about? This activity is a great way to overcome writer’s block in kids or young writers especially.
Set yourself a challenge: After a while, writing can almost feel like a chore that you just have to do. But don’t let this become a blocker for your writing. Keep writing fun by setting yourself daily writing challenges and exercises . For example, aim to include a certain word or phase in your next story or make sure that you include a famous quote somewhere. Alternatively, you must just want to set yourself daily word count goals, where you aim to write a certain amount each day, such as 100 words a day or 500 words in a week.
Mix ideas from a range of places: Sometimes, wanting to be unique and original can cause writer’s block. In this case, why not take a bunch of ideas that already exist and mix them up to create a mega story. Take stuff from a YouTube video you recently saw and mix it up with something that happened to you in real-life to create a funny story that can end up being a masterpiece.
Eliminate Distractions: Get rid of the internet, mobile phones, and any TV shows playing in the background and focus entirely on your writing. All you really need is a pen, paper and your fully focused mind to start writing.
Create a writing space: Writing on your bed or on the floor can be uncomfortable and distracting. It’s important to have a dedicated writing space somewhere in your house, like an office or a desk in your bedroom, where you can sit comfortably with all your writing materials in one place. Not only does this make it easy when you need something like your ideas journal or notebooks, but it’s also a good way to get rid of distractions.
Read a book: When you’re stuck on how to write a story or on getting ideas, reading a book is possibly the best idea to get rid of this type of writer’s block. Reading not only expands your vocabulary but also helps you understand how real books are written and laid out. Helping you to become a better writer.
Join a writing community: Write with others, share your ideas and work together to become better writers. Writing communities like Imagine Forest, are a great way to test your story ideas, get feedback and talk to other writers about your struggles.
Sleep on it: Good sleep is important for many activities including writing. When you’re tired your brain loses focus, making writing even more difficult than it has to be. A good night’s sleep is always recommended if you’re feeling tired or not in the mood to write.
Get some fresh air: Go out for a walk and get your mind off the writing. Stretch your legs and do a little work-out to get the blood pumping. You should feel refreshed and ready to start writing again when you return.
Let your mind takeover: Forget writing your story and write down your thoughts at the moment. Are you feeling angry, upset, or bored? Write it down and keep writing it down until you feel some inspiration or motivation to write your story again.
Deny the writer’s block: Some writers believe that writer’s block is a myth . Whether it’s a real condition or not, it doesn’t matter. The point is that denying the writer’s block can be a good motivation to start writing again. Just remember, there’s always something to write about. You can rewrite, free write, write from different perspectives, write poems, sentences, funny words and anything else you like. With so much to write about – Is there really such a thing as writer’s block?
Do other creative activities: Step away from writing and do something else creative. You can make your own finger puppets, do some papercraft, paint a picture, draw something, keep a bullet journal – Anything to get those creative juices flowing again. Eventually, you’ll be able to beat writer’s block and get writing again.
Write early in the morning: Your brain is just waking up, probably from a dream. That’s normally the perfect time for inspiration to strike. Keep a notebook handy by your bed and start writing as soon as you wake up or even in the middle of the night if you can’t sleep.
Do some research: Sometimes with writer’s block, the problem is not the writing but it’s the research. You either don’t know much about your idea or about something in your story, such as the setting or characters. Try researching the year your story is set in or stories that are similar to your idea and making notes. This activity is really handy in developing your story and making sure that you’re headed in the right direction.
Make a list: The worst thing about writer’s block is that you feel that valuable time is being wasted. Make your time matter by creating a list of things to do or research. A good technique is to break the task of writing a story down into loads of mini-tasks to complete within deadlines. For example, writing the opening line, researching settings, creating character backstories, developing a plot twist and so on.
Keep an ideas journal: Create a “Go-To” journal or folder with all your ideas, writing prompts, quotes and inspirational material in one place. Whenever you don’t feel like writing or have lost inspiration, you can look through your personal ideas journal for the help you need.
Participate in Contests: Contests or online writing challenges are a great way to give you some structure when it comes to writing. They can also offer inspiration and motivation in the form of a deadline.
Set a Timer: Set a timer for about 15 to 20 minutes and then write non-stop everything that comes to mind. After the time is up, take a break for 2 minutes and set another time for 15 to 20 minutes. After three or four sessions you should feel more inspired and ready to write something more important.
Re-read your old pieces of writing: Look through your old pieces of writing and stories. Take note of all the things you liked about these pieces and all the things you would improve. You could even try re-writing one of your old pieces and making it better by improving on all the things you disliked about it.
Write to your friend: Forget writing a story for the mass market or a wide audience. The pressure can be too much. Instead, think about a close friend or a family member and write a story just for them. Think about what they would enjoy reading, what makes them laugh and create a story dedicated to them.
Follow your passions: Write about something you really enjoy doing or something you really care about. Do you care about global warming, crime, and animal rights? Use this passion and put it into your stories. Remember, writing gives you the opportunity to change the world and make a difference. It’s more than just a few words on a paper, you could impact millions of lives.

There’s no magic cure to writer’s block. In the end, you’ll have to find your own way of dealing with writer’s block and finding ways to motivate yourself. Let us know your techniques on how to overcome writer’s block in the comments below.

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

Innovative Creative Writing Exercises for kids

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When you reach puberty, you grow hair on your chest.

Removing Second Person Handout and Practice

Download the Removing Second Person Handout and Practice:

For answers to the practice, visit a campus tutoring center near you.

Rule of Thumb for Academic Writing

you, your, yours
we, us, our, ours

Sounds harsh, but unless an instructor specifically says otherwise, assume second person is to be avoided.

Get the "You" Outta Here Video

Main Reasons to Avoid Second Person

Causes confusion
Addresses the reader
Is imprecise
Is inaccurate
Shifts person
Is too informal

Breaking the You Habit

Use nouns instead
Use indefinite pronouns (everyone, someone, anything) instead
Cut the "you" out altogether
Avoid giving commands (where "you" is the implied subject)

Spotting Second Person

The best way to spot second person is to print paper and read it out loud.
Another way is to use the Find/Replace feature in your word processing software.
Last Updated: Oct 23, 2023 11:03 AM
URL: https://spcollege.libguides.com/noyou

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How to Eliminate “To Be” Verbs in Writing

Every English teacher has a sure-fire revision tip that makes developing writers dig down deep and revise initial drafts. One of my favorites involves reducing the number of “to be verbs”: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, and been .

At this point, even before I begin to plead my case, I hear the grumbling of the contrarians. One of them mutters a snide, rhetorical question: Didn’t Shakespeare say “To be, or not to be: that is the question:”? He used three “to be” verbs right there! If it’s good enough for Shakespeare, it’s good enough for me. True, but Will used only six more “to be” verbs in Hamlet’s next 34 lines. My goals are to convince teachers to help their students reduce, not eliminate the “to be” verbs, and so write with greater precision and purpose. There. I just used a “to be” verb. Feeling better?

Eliminate “To Be” Verbs

What’s So Wrong with “To Be” Verbs?

The “to be” verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been are state of being verbs, which means that they unduly claim a degree of permanence. For example, “I am hungry.” For most Americans, hunger is only a temporary condition.
The “to be” verbs claim absolute truth and exclude other views. “Classical music is very sophisticated.” Few would agree that all classical compositions are always sophisticated.
The “to be” verbs are general and lack specificity. A mother may tell her child, “Be good at school today.” The more specific “Don’t talk when the teacher talks today” would probably work better.
The “to be” verbs are vague. For example, “That school is great.” Clarify the sentence as “That school has wonderful teachers, terrific students, and supportive parents.”
The “to be” verbs often confuse the reader about the subject of the sentence. For example, “It was nice of you to visit.” Who or what is the “It?”

Adapted from Ken Ward’s E-Prime article at http://www.trans4mind.com/personal_development/GeneralSemantics/KensEPrime.htm

When Can We Use “To Be” Verbs?

It’s not that “to be” verbs are always bad; sometimes writers must use “to be” verbs to communicate exactly what the writer wants to say. In fact, these verb forms can be difficult to replace. When the verb links to the subject (the do-er) of the sentence as a state of being , it performs one of these five functions:

Exists− Is there any trouble? Yes, I am he (predicate nominative).
Happens− The meetings are over.
Locates− He was at the birthday party.
Identifies− Those children were friendly (predicate adjective).
Describes− That could be scary (helping verb)! He is being helpful (progressive tense). Those girls have been so mean (perfect tense).

Generally, writers should minimize the use of “to be” verbs in essays. “To be” verbs should appear more frequently in narrative writing, especially in dialogue. Authentic-sounding dialogue mimics our informal speech, which often uses the “to be” verbs.

However, when writers can replace a “to be” verb with a vivid, “show me” verb in any writing genre, it certainly makes sense to do so. With a good “show me” verb, the reader (or listener) can picture the physical or mental action of the verb. The verb engages the interest of the reader and specifically communicates the nature of the action. But, not all non-“to be” verbs are vivid, “show me” verbs. For example, the physical and mental action verbs in this sentence do not use vivid, “show me” verbs: The boy sits down on the bench and thinks what to do next. In contrast, the physical and mental action verbs in this sentence do use vivid, “show me” verbs: The boy slouches down on the bench and studies what to do next.

So, how can we get our students to reduce or eliminate “to be” verbs in their essays to create precision of meaning, specificity, clarity, and just good old sentence variety? How do we get our students to use these vivid “show me” verbs instead? Try these five strategies:

How to Eliminate “To Be” Verbs

Identify − Students need to memorize the “to be” verbs to avoid using them and to revise those that they have used in essays: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been . Teach students to self-edit by circling “to be” verbs in the revision stage of writing. Teach students how to problem-solve whether a “to be” verb is necessary or not. Teach students to identify and revise Non-standard English forms of the “to be” verb (Common Core State Standards L.2,3). For example, “They be watching cartoons” or “She been taking her time” You can also identify, explain, and suggest revisions of both “to be” verbs and nonstandard English with one click from my e-Comments app .
Substitute − Sometimes a good replacement of a “to be” verb just pops into the brain. For example, instead of “That cherry pie is delicious,” substitute the “to be” verb is with tastes as in “That cherry pie tastes delicious.” If a strong, vivid verb does not pop into the brain, HERE is a great list of action verbs, specifically designed for persuasive/argumentative essays, informational/explanatory essays, literary analysis, and narratives (W1.0, 2.0, 3.0 of the Common Core Writing Standards) with useful categories for your students. Thanks to Mary Beth Foster, University of Arizona Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques (SALT) Center for compiling this list. Also, substitute the “there,” “here,” and “it” + “to be” verbs. For example, instead of “ There is the cake, and here are the pies for dessert, and it is served by Mom,” replace with “Mom serves the cake and pies for dessert.” Let’s also add on the “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those” + “to be” verbs. Finally, strong linking verbs can replace “to be” verbs. For example, instead of “That was still the best choice,” substitute the “to be” verb was with the linking verb remained as in “That remained the best choice.”
Convert − Students can start the sentence differently to see if this helps eliminate a “to be” verb. For example, instead of “Charles Schulz was the creator of the Peanuts cartoon strip,” convert the common noun creator to the verb created as in “Charles Schulz created the Peanuts cartoon strip.”
Change− To eliminate a “to be” verb, s tudents can change the subject of the sentence to another noun or pronoun found in the sentence and rearrange the order of the sentence. For example, instead of “The car was stopped by a police officer,” change the complete subject, the car , to a police officer to write “A police officer stopped the car.” Also, students can add in a different sentence subject to eliminate a “to be” verb. For example, instead of “The books were written in Latin,” add in a different sentence subject, such as “authors” to change the passive voice to the active voice and write “Authors wrote the books in Latin. Lastly , starting the sentence with a different word or part of speech will help eliminate the “to be” verb. For example, instead of “The monster was in the dark tunnel creeping,” rearrange as “Down the dark tunnel crept the monster.”
Combine − Look at the sentences before and after the one with the “to be” verb to see if c ombining the sentences will eliminate the “to be” verb. For example, instead of “The child was sad. The sensitive child was feeling that way because of the news story,” combine as “The news story saddened the sensitive child.”

A Teaching Plan to Eliminate the “To Be” Verb

Post a list of the “to be” verbs and the problem-solving strategies listed above for student reference. Download the three “To Be” Posters at the end of this article. Great tools to teach!
Why not create a Dead Verbs Cemetery bulletin board? (What a great idea for Halloween!)
Share the five strategies one at a time, so as not to overwhelm students. Teach, practice, and master only one strategy before moving on to another strategy.
Use teacher think-alouds to model the “to be” verb revision process.
Then, turn the revision chore on over to the whole class with one student writing sample. Correct whole class and commend the variety of effective revisions. Compare sentence revisions and discuss which strategies worked and did not work to eliminate the “to be” verbs.
Next, collect student writing samples from the whole class and have students individually revise their peers’ “to be” verbs. Peer editing focused on one target issue makes sense.
Next, have students revise their own sentences from their own writing samples, using the five strategies.

After teaching and practicing all five strategies, set the “rule” that from now on only one “to-be” verb is allowed in any paragraph (excluding direct quotes). Use peer editing to help identify the “to-be” verbs and peer tutors to help struggling students.

Teaching the strategies and practicing them in the context of student writing samples will help students recognize and avoid these “writing crutches” in their own writing. The end result? More precise and purposeful student writing with vivid, “show me” verbs.

Check out the quality program materials found in these teacher-created and classroom-tested resources:

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Grammar/Mechanics , Literacy Centers , Study Skills , Writing coherence , Common Core writing , eliminate to be verbs , essay revision , essay strategies , grammar , helping verbs , linking verbs , Mark Pennington , pennington publishing , Teaching Grammar and Mechanics , Teaching the Language Strand , Teaching Writing Strategies , to be verb poster , to be verbs , unity , usage , writers workshop , writing revision , writing worksheets

Even though I was born… is in the passive I maintain that it sounds better than My mother gave birth to me… The second one just doesn’t feel right to me. I think sometimes you just have to leave the passive voice alone.

Replacing a linking verb with another verb such as “tastes” creates another linking verb, also known as a verb that expresses condition. Do NOT simply replace linking verbs with other verbs or you will create yet another linking verb.

I am (pardon my linking verb) editing the first draft of my first novel, and trying to take out linking verbs. For dialogue, if it makes it sound unnatural – is it really better? Example:

Background – the character just returned home after a long absence

Original sentence friend says to character: “I am so happy you’re home!”

Attempted revision, “Your return fills me with happiness.”

Unless “fills” is also a linking verb, I think I took both linking verbs out. But do people really speak like this? I don’t believe the revision improves the writing, and I worry it will rip the reader out of the “escape” of reading the novel – because it sounds so contrived for no other reason than to eliminate the linking verb.

I appreciate any comments or suggestions on how I could do this better!

Is there a resource where you can submit sentences with linking verbs and get suggestions for revised sentences back?

Dialogue should be authentic. No one would say, “I am so happy you’re home!” Instead, “I’m so happy you’re home!” Nothing wrong with “to be” verbs (linking or helping) in dialogue. Work on strong verbs in your narration and description.Avoid mechanical writing at all costs.

In high school AP prep, our teacher forbid us from using “there + verb”. So, no “there is”, “there are”, etc. Then, after the AP tests were done, she advised us to use them sparingly and for great purpose.

Same holds true with “It” e.g. It is the case that… Rid your writing of these useless expletives. Let’s also delete the “I think,” “I believe,” “In my opinion,” “I know that” and the like.

November 22nd, 2016 at 12:04 | #1 15 Simple Tips to Write Better Today – Bidsketch
June 15th, 2017 at 02:38 | #2 6 writing hacks you need to know | RipCord Communications, LLC
July 5th, 2017 at 08:02 | #3 6 writing hacks you need to know – RipCord Communications
April 12th, 2018 at 14:06 | #4 More Story Elements – Juneta Key
April 24th, 2018 at 12:42 | #5 The Verb “To Be” Is Your Friend | Just Can't Help Writing
June 11th, 2023 at 17:50 | #6 Be Verbs Lesson Plan: How to Reduce These Dull Words – An ELA Experience

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For all academic papers in all college classes, students should eliminate the use of second person pronouns: ... but unless an instructor specifically says otherwise, assume second person is to be avoided. Get the "You" Outta Here Video. Main Reasons to Avoid Second Person. There are several reasons to avoid the use of "you" in academic writing ...
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How to Eliminate "To-Be" Verbs in Writing
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