The Superfluous "That"
Writers are forever honing their craft. Style and technique are continuously evolving as we acquire knowledge and new skills. While we learn things about our own writing from a multitude of sources, sometimes insight is gained completely by accident. Such was the case when I discovered my own proclivity for overusing one cheeky little word—that.
I believe I’ve said this before: Even when we think a manuscript is completely finished…it isn’t. The most important thing writers can do for themselves is to edit, edit and edit again. The corrections and changes you make will become fewer with each subsequent reading but there will likely always be something that can be better.
Here is why I say so.
I “finished” a manuscript some time ago and believed it ready for publication. I picked up a copy of Writer’s Market with the intention of finding an agent. Whilst perusing this marvelous tome, I learned one of the most vital lessons of my life as a writer: the importance of word count. I was horrified to discover base-line industry standards regarding word count, depending on factors like genre and intended audience. These standards are meant to be guidelines as opposed to hard and fast rules; however it becomes increasingly more difficult to market a book that strays too far from the acceptable numbers.
Industry standards for a fantasy novel range from around 90,000-120,000 words. My “finished” manuscript topped out at a staggering 152,000! Thus began my first round with the concept of content editing and my accidental discovery.
When I first opened my manuscript I was in despair, wondering how on earth I was going to cut so many words without completely butchering my story. Unsure of where to begin, I started reading from the beginning and noticed something as I continued along. I used the word that a lot. As I continued reading, I realized these thats didn’t serve to clarify any sort of meaning. They were literally useless.
Consider: The pirates knew that they were hopelessly outnumbered but continued fighting.
The little girl noticed that her ball had rolled into the street.
Georgie knew that he shouldn’t talk to the strange clown in the sewer.
Remove "that" from each of those sentences. Do they still make sense and convey the same meaning? Absolutely! I read through my entire manuscript, removing every superfluous use of "that" I could find. Once finished I hit the word count button and guess what happened? My manuscript had shrunk by about 20,000 words! I was shocked at how removing one tiny little word could have such a tremendous impact.
