Friday, December 18, 2015

Edit Lesson: What's wrong with "here"


The word "here" is one of those unspecific words that can appear in fiction. I say unspecific because it tells the reader nothing about the location other than it is not someplace else.

The word "here" is also unnecessary word that can appear in fiction. I say unnecessary because it can be eliminated with no change in meaning. The default location in fiction is the present location (here) unless otherwise specified.

To illustrate, consider this paragraph from an actual published book.
And here I was, performing that same trick today.
What the author actually means is,
And I was present, performing that same trick today.
But of course that sounds worse. So lets remove the word "here" from the original sentence:
And I was, performing that same trick today.
We drop the "And" and the comma and get a declarative sentence:
I performed that same trick today.
The lesson is that "here" can, and should, be stricken from all fiction, unless used in dialog as part of a necessary jargon or accent.

When editing something you have written, make a pass through it looking for all occurrences of the word, "here." Remove each occurrence and rewrite so that its absence works better.

Perhaps another example will help. Consider:
He pushed open the door and shoved me into his office. What was I doing here again?
Eliminate "here" and rewrite to perhaps get:
He pushed open the door and shoved me through. What was I doing in his office again?
Search your manuscript for the word "here" and eliminate. Repeat until there are no "here" words left. Your manuscript will be better for the effort.