Over the years of editing countless manuscripts, I’ve noticed many common turns of phrases that I edit out. Newer writers tend to overwrite, meaning they use words they don’t need to because they want to make things perfectly clear to the reader. But with the items below, they are only distracting the reader with unnecessary words.
When you’re self-editing your manuscript, you may want to search for these problematic phrases and clean them up. The cleaner your manuscript is when it reaches your editor, the cleaner it will be overall because your editor’s attention will be freed up to focus on other errors or places where improvements can be made.
For each item below, I’ve shared the original and what it should be changed into, then why you should make the change.
shake [her/his/their] head no → shake [her/his/their] head
Everyone knows that when someone shakes their head, they are saying no.
nod [her/his/their] head yes → nod
Everyone knows that when someone nods, it’s with their head. They also know that a nod means yes.
squint [her/his/their] eyes → squint
There’s only one way to squint, and that’s with your eyes.
cross [her/his/their] arms across their chest → cross [her/his/their] arms
Everyone assumes that when someone crosses their arms, it’s over their chest. Maybe your character is crossing their arms above their head. If that’s the case, you’ll say that (but the default is over their chest).
shrugged [her/his/their] shoulders → shrugged
When a person shrugs, it’s always with their shoulders.
follow behind → follow
You can’t follow in front of someone; you can only follow behind them.
raise up → raise
There’s already an implied upward movement involved with raising something.
rise up → rise
Like with “raise,” there’s an implied upward movement.
lift up → lift
Like with “raise” and “rise,” the upward motion is implied.
kneel down → kneel
When you kneel, there’s no choice but to do so in a downward direction.
crouch down → crouch
Like with “kneel,” you can only go downward.
stand up → stand
Standing always involves an upward movement.
sit down → sit
Sitting always involves a downward movement.
lie down → lie
Like with “sit,” a downward motion is implied.
wake up → wake
The word up adds no additional meaning here.
