Filter Language
Verbs carry action, the literal and symbolic movement within creative writing. Without verbs, a narrative would stand still.
But, like all things in writing, there is a need for consideration and moderation with every verb used. Why? Because a verb can also be a distraction.
This is when a verb becomes filter language.
Take the verbs ‘hear’, ‘see’, ‘know’, and ‘think’ – and their conjugations and synonyms. If the point of view character didn’t hear, see, know, or think, there would be no narrative to share. The thoughts, sights, sounds, and knowledge of a point of view character are where the story comes from, and they are what manifests upon the page.
The thing is, these verbs (and others) are often best implied.
Consider the following (unartful) example:
‘I saw a cat dash across the alleyway. I heard the crash of precarious garbage falling. With that, I knew the cat must have used the garbage to scale the wall, because it was out of sight and the garbage was scattered. I thought about the cat’s impressive speed.’
Some readers might have found the above example difficult and uncompelling enough to read. Imagine a whole novel like that. Yikes.
To build a clause, a verb needs a subject – in this case, ‘I’. But by doing this so explicitly there is an obvious, formulaic repetition.
Moreover, filter language can shift the reader’s focus to the verbs rather than the scenes the verbs inhabit. The reader’s attention is on the notion that something was ‘seen’ or ‘heard’ or ‘known’ or ‘thought’ rather than what is actually happening. The meaning or point of the writing can easily be lost as a result of mis-emphasis.
Was it important to know that the narrator saw the cat? No, not unless there was something unusual about having seen the cat, but in this scene that isn’t likely. Rather, just by mentioning a cat and what it was doing, it would be implied that the narrator saw it.
Similarly, the sentence which follows is describing something heard (‘crash’), but is hijacked by filter language. Just by using onomatopoeia, that something was heard would be implied. If it wasn’t heard, its sound couldn’t really be described.
Extend this thinking to each of the sentences in the above example and then rewrite without it. You’ll end up with something similar to below (with your own creative flare, of course). I think we can all agree this second paragraph is a huge improvement on the first sentence, with very little work needed to leave the verbs as implied.
‘A cat dashed across the alleyway. It must have used the precarious pile of garbage to scale the wall, because the garbage fell with a crash and the cat was out of sight. Such impressive speed.’
There are sometimes reasons for narrative, character, and/or voice to specify that something was, for example, ‘heard’, but more on that another time.
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