Prepositional Phrases - Remove the Clutter

[Dream Books LLC]

The five step process to remove Prepositions –
Step One – Examine your writing for compound prepositional phrases. Once identified, replace each compound prep phrase with a simple preposition.
What is a compound prep phrase? – They are a series of prep phrases that act like a single preposition. Beware of these! Some common ones you will find in non fiction writing are – with regard to, with respect to, in reference to, etc.
Convert these phrases to simpler phrases or eliminate the phrase all together.
Example – In order to write more concisely… (Bad)
To write more concisely (Good)
At this point in time (Bad)
Now (Good)
Removing clutter will help your book read better and is one of the big things an editor looks for when going through your document.
This tip brought to you by Dream Books LLC Editing Service
Visit us online at www.dreambooksllc.com/editing.

[Daniel Lance Wright]

I find that prepositional phrases are the easiest tools to overuse when writing with wild abandon during the draft stage of a manuscript. Usually, on the first edit, my word count will drop up to 20% (+ or-) and most of the excess is prepositional phrases. But, even then, as author, my head remains in the plot, story arc, etc. a bit too much and I overlook the obvious on many occasions.

Daniel (Danny) Lance Wright
Author of
"Paradise Flawed"/Dream Books LLC/2009
"Six Years' Worth"/Father's Press/2007
"The Last Radiant Heart"/Virtual Tales/Spring 2010
"Anne Bonny, Where Are You?"/Rogue Phoenix Press/May 2010