If you’d like to keep your audience engaged, invested and on the edge of their seat, there are a number of words to avoid.
Began – Yes, we know the act began somewhere, but as the storyteller, it’s your job to make it clear where, when and how it began. Even before the act or action starts, always follow this advice: Show rather than tell.
Take the reader with you on the adventure, side by side as a companion and they will appreciate your story all the more for it.
They began to walk…
OR
The five friends took the first tentative steps on their epic journey…
Looked / Seemed – Unless your story is leading up to a deception, to become something else, something other than the expected, be definite. If something ‘looks pristine’, for example, there is no reason why it can’t BE pristine.
The room looked (seemed) pristine…
Unless you want the reader to look at the room and you can then deliver the shock that the appearance was nothing more than a façade, with dirt swept under the rugs, junk and rubbish piled behind the sofa in an appearance of cleanliness, then the room should be described something like this:
Not a thing out of place, no dust to be found even in remote, awkward corners, the door opened onto a pristine bedroom, against every predefined image of a teenage Goth-chick.
Much and Many – much quicker, much heavier – describe, don’t be lazy. This work is supposed to be your baby; the best work you’ve ever written – if it’s not the best… why are you wasting your time on this project? Write one you love!
Many screams – screams works better – less is more, darling.
Picture from pixabay