Prose checks › Weak constructions Pro
Prose check: weak constructionsThere was a knock. Someone knocked.
Some sentence shapes pad the action or put it off. “She began to run” when she ran. “There was a knock” when someone knocked. Falcontext finds these weak constructions.
Two weak constructions
- There was / there were: the thing happens to nobody in particular.
- Began to / started to: the action is announced instead of done.
Not the same as passive voice
Passive voice is about who does the action. This is about how the sentence is built around it.
How common are they?
Across the 38 published books I measured, the middle one had 2.0 per 1,000 words, and the most 5.6.
Where these numbers come from.
How Falcontext checks weak constructions
Guidelines, not rules. Sometimes she really did begin to run. Keep those.
- Finds
- “There was”, “there were”, “began to” and “started to” in the narration, each marked in your text.
- Traffic light
- Up to 3 per 1,000 words
- Up to 5
- More than 5
Sometimes she really did begin to run, and stopped. Then keep it.
Weak constructions are part of the words pass when you self-edit a novel: change the ones that weaken the sentence, ignore the ones you meant.
“There was” or “began to”: which one is yours?
Questions about weak constructions.
Is “there was” bad writing?
Not always: it’s a fine way to introduce something. A lot of them in a scene can pad it, which is what Falcontext points out.
What’s the difference with passive voice?
Passive voice hides who does the action (“the door was opened”). Weak constructions delay or pad it (“there was a knock”, “began to run”).
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