One of the most interesting “writing rules” I came across in college was Hemingway’s feelings on adverbs: He hated adverbs. He called them “lazy writing.” Adverbs are any descriptor word ending in -ly: • Lazily • Eerily • Mostly • Honestly • Etc. Learning about this rule changed my writing forever. And while I still make the mistake of using one too many adverbs here and there, I try very hard not to fill my sentences with them. Adverbs are passive ways of saying the same thing the sentence is already saying. But since learning about this rule, and realizing the ways it improved my writing, I started looking for more rules. And a big one I’ve come across has been the importance of removing “little words:” • It • So • Just • That • Well • Like • This • Much • Often • Really • Better • Usually • Probably • Sometimes • And, and, and Little words (especially in turns of phrase like “In so forth” or “So much as”) have a knack for killing what could be a great, powerful, concise sentence — and turning it into a soupy mess. For example: [Original sentence]: “One of the most common changes that occurs when people go off to college is they become different versions of themselves.” [Rewrite]: “When people go off to college, they become different versions of themselves.” Both sentences are saying “the same thing,” and yet the second sentence reads 10x easier than the first. Why? We removed all the little words: • One • Of • The • That • Is So, the next time you’re staring at a sentence and can’t quite put your finger on why it’s not reading the way you want it to read, ask yourself: “What little words can I delete here?” With writing, less is always more. By the way, I saw the biggest leap in my skill as a writer when I started ghostwriting. It's how I got paid to write and network with industry leaders (like CEOs, NYT best-selling authors, and Grammy award-winning musicians). Want to land high-paying clients and get paid to write? I wrote a free, 5-day email course to help you get started. Click the link in my bio to get instant access.