Month: November 2024

While most of think of filler words as using “um” or “uh” in speeches, there are lots of other extras we put in our writing.

These extras can distract from your main message and make your writing come off as less serious.

Keep in mind, the type of writing you do changes what words are appropriate, and what are considered extra.

For example, academic essays will have a more elevated writing style than most social media posts. However, there’s almost always something you can cut.

This article reviews basics of filler words: what they are, why they don’t work, and how to avoid them.

What are filler words?

Filler words are words in speech or written text that could be eliminated and are there to take up space.

In speech this sounds like:

• Um
• Uh
• Er
• Ah
• Like
• OK
• Yeah
• Right
• You know

Writers often use filler words when they are unsure of what they have to say or want to hit a certain word count.

Most of us don’t realize how often we use filler words. I’ve been writing for years and I’m certain there are many in this article! It’s a hard habit to break, especially when you have a lot of writing to do and not a lot of extra time.

Depending on your writing style, some filler words make sense to keep. But more often, you can self-edit to make your writing stronger. At first it may be difficult to identify what is style and what is filler, but if you aim to cut the fluff, you’ll be on the right track.

What’s the difference between filler words in writing and in speech?

For the most part, filler words are the same in both writing and speech. It’s more common to use filler words in creative writing and casual speech.

If you are creating a proposal or a formal presentation, you will want to make sure you focus on cutting unnecessary words so your piece looks and sounds professional.

Why avoid using extra words in your writing?

Filler words are bad because they confuse readers and dilute your writing. If you have too much filler people may think your writing is padded and not enjoy the reading experience.

In particular, if you are doing any kind of persuasive writing, it’s important to avoid fluffy or flowery language because it can bury your message.

There is an argument for using filler words in creative writing or poetry, but for most types of writing, it communicates best when it’s clear, concise, and direct.

Examples of filler words

This is a brief overview of filler word examples. Keep in mind that each example below is not guaranteed to be a filler word—it depends on the sentence itself and what is being said. This is especially true for character dialogue.

One way to test if a word is filler is if you can remove it and the sentence still holds the same meaning.

Filler Words

• Really
• Very
• Highly
• Just
• Like
• As you know
• However
• Finally
• In conclusion
• You know
• You see
• Right
• In my opinion
• I guess
• I mean
• Seriously
• Literally
• Totally
• However
• As mentioned

Filler words take up space and make sentences wordy.

4 ways to improve your writing

Here are four ways to avoid using filler words to improve your writing.

1. Start with a brain dump

Before you worry too much about filler words, start by freewriting until everything in your head is on the page.

Write, then edit. (You can’t edit a blank page!)

Your first draft should be judgement-free so you can let your ideas flow. That way you have something to work with when it is time to edit.

2. Cut every sentence in half

This is a guideline rather than a rule. Sometimes cutting won’t make sense.

Pushing yourself to remove unnecessary words is a good and challenging practice. You might be surprised at how clear your writing becomes when you remove what’s extra.

3. Decide what’s filler and what’s essential

Some words like “in addition” or “however” can be important transition words. Every sentence is unique and sometimes what’s filler in one is essential in the other. If you’re not sure, try reading your sentence aloud with and without the word in question. Your ears will know what’s best!

4. Use an editing tool

Using writing and editing tools such as Hemingway app can help you decide how to cut your writing without losing its essence.

There are a lot of tools available, out there, but that one is a popular one for writers since it edits work based on the short sentence style of Ernest Hemingway.

There’s a lot of discussion online about writing rates. What’s the best way to bid a project? By the word? By the hour? By the project?

They all have their uses, especially since some publications and businesses are kind of in the habit of using one or the other of these methods for deciding what they’ll pay.

Which writing rate is the best way to price jobs?

To my mind, it’s by the hour.

Time is your most precious resource. You only have so many work hours in the year, so you need to make as much per hour as you can. Which leads me to my one important rule of pricing jobs:

No matter how you price the job, track your hours and figure out your hourly rate

Because if you don’t know your hourly rate, how can you work on raising it? How can you compare clients and know which to keep and which to drop?

Now, if you’re working for an ongoing copywriting client, I personally believe bidding by the project is best. Your client is happy because they know exactly what they’re going to pay, and you can budget for the amount you will earn.

The trick to choosing the best writing rate is creating a flat fee for that project that will give you what you want

You can only do that by getting some experience with how long it takes you to do things. Obviously, this setup rewards efficiency. If you’re unusually fast, you can bid on a par with other writers, but end up with a better hourly rate, and earn more over the course of the year.

Before the downturn, I thought high per-article fees were the answer to maximizing earnings. But I’ve learned that’s not always true. When I was scrambling around for a few new clients in late 2008/early 2009, I got an offer from an old editor friend to write some quick articles for $100 apiece, just based on my knowledge of business topics, supplemented with a little online research. (Hey, it’s above my $50 an assignment limit, people!)

At first I was appalled. Prior to this time period, about the very lowest article rate I took was $300. Then I thought what the heck, and gave them a try.

I found I could write them in an hour to 90 minutes. A little quick math and hmmm…that’s $70-$100 an hour. Not too shabby. I’ve kept this work as good occasional filler projects . A quick scan of my bills showed I picked up $1,700 this way in 2010 in maybe 20 to 22 hours. So the lesson is: Any work that earns a high hourly rate is good writing work.

Of course, getting a client where they’ll let you simply bill for however many hours you’re spending on their projects each month is the ideal. Then you know you’re getting paid for every hour you work. I had a client like that at $95 an hour for more than a year, sending me work every month. I think right now, those jobs are harder to come by.

But billing hourly protects you against the evil that is scope creep: the situation where you bid a flat project fee, but then the parameters of the project keep growing, as does your time spent. Been lots of discussion of how to handle this sticky problem on LinkedIn.

Most publications tend to assign a price per word or give a flat article price. In which case, you may need to work on your efficiency to make sure your rate stays as good as possible.

But you can always ask for more money. I’ve gotten companies to add $50-$200 to an article assignment or more if they ended up wanting sidebars, or a longer length, or I knew they were a slow payer.

What do you prefer? Billing by the project, the hour or the word?

Photo via Flickr user zoutedrop