Dear Writing Friends,

You may be the only the only people on this planet that understand this crazy (but fun) focus on written words!

The word that currently has my attention is some:

“I went to the store and bought some ice cream.”

“I saw that you have some books on display.”

“I read some before bed.”

“I have some things to talk with you about.”

“There are some loaves of bread in the cabinet.”

Some = a certain unspecified number, amount, or degree

I recently read an email from a friend. I will admit, after several sentences which included the word some, I found myself singling out that word instead of following the intended content of the message.

As a writer, one of our goals is to drop words that are unnecessary. As we read, and as we gain experience in writing, we sharpen our editing skills, and painfully, we find ourselves looking at not only our own writing, but anything in print that pops into our world. We are naturally obsessed with this craft!

“I went to the store and bought some a gallon of ice cream.”

“I read some for a short while few minutes before I went to bed.”

“There are some several loaves of bread in the cabinet.”

Experts tell us to write in our natural voice. Oh yes, that leads me to hone in on my personal speech! As I speak today, I find myself stopping in mid-sentence to not say the word (shhh!) some.

Next week, the word some will be imbedded in my writer’s brain as a permanent fixture, and the next soon-to-become-endangered word will emerge. I already saw a glimpse of two grouped together non-descriptive words in a sentence above, “short while.”

My writing friends, is there any hope for us?