2/14/24 2/14/24

9 Overloved Words and Phrases

Cut these from your content on Valentine’s Day (and always)

Those extraneous embellishments in the form of unnecessary adverbs, redundant adjectives, and vague nouns are smothering your words of note.

Show them a little love by giving them room to breathe.

Here are 9 overloved words and phrases to delete from your content now.

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Edz Norton

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1. the fact that

William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, authors of the ubiquitous The Elements of Style, say the fact that is an “especially debilitating” expression that should be cut without exception.

The fact that can almost always be replaced. Here are some common replacements, according to The Elements of Style:

owing to the fact that —> since/because
in spite of the fact that —> though/although
call your attention to the fact that —> remind/notify you
I was unaware of the fact that —> I was unaware that/I did not know that
the fact that he had not succeeded —> his failure
the fact that I had arrived —> my arrival

Often, cutting the fact works well too:

“Putting aside the fact that nearly 1 in 4 Americans are unable to afford medical treatment” can become “Putting aside that…”

2. actually

Benjamin Dreyer, former copy chief of Random House, wrote in his book, Dreyer’s English, that actually can almost always be cut. We use it colloquially for emphasis, but it’s just drowning what would otherwise be a firm statement.

Dreyer goes on to suggest we also cut very, rather, really, quite, in fact, that said, pretty (the adverb, as in pretty great), of course, and that said.

3. first-ever

“It was the first parade in the town” means the same as “It was the first-ever parade in the town,” without the extra word.

If something is the first, we know it is the first…ever.

4. just/only

These, in adverb form, are often used before a measurement or number of some kind to emphasize the amazement of that measurement/number. “The round-trip flight costs just $300!” “The runner completed the marathon in only 3 hours!” But if the measurement/number is so amazing, it doesn’t need your petty just or only.

5. there are

There are delays the reader’s arrival to the substance of the sentence. (I was so close to writing just delays and then edited myself!)

“There are dozens of restaurants in the neighborhood that serve excellent pizza” can easily be “Dozens of restaurants in the neighborhood serve excellent pizza”—and it saves the audience from three say-nothing words (e.g., there are and that).

6. In addition to + also

Also is redundant when it follows an introductory participle phrase using in addition to.

For example, we don’t need to say, “In addition to providing delicious food, the restaurant also offers gorgeous views.” Cut the also.

Another example: “In addition to introducing new routes and destinations, Breeze also is expanding its fleet.” Cut the also!

7. that

Editors argue over this one. Some are totally against the overuse of that as a conjunction. Others say it’s necessary for clarity.

Personally, I’m all for excluding that wherever possible. It’s okay to write, “She told me you were going to the party,” instead of “She told me that you were going to the party.”

8. Unnecessary verb + preposition pairs

This one is my pet peeve. Do you really need to say open up? Or does open suffice?

You don’t need to say “She climbed up the ladder.” “She climbed the ladder” is sufficient.

Write out is another. You don’t need to say “She wrote out her name on the chalkboard.” “She wrote her name on the chalkboard” is great.

Conjure up should just be conjure.

Printed out —> printed. Seek out —> seek. Rise up —> rise.

The water cools down to 70 degrees —> The water cools to 70 degrees.

Next time you encounter a verb + preposition pair, ask yourself if the preposition is necessary.

9. including + and more

Including and and more are often used in a list of items, or a series, but as a general rule, they shouldn’t appear together.

Don’t say, “The city has tons of attractions, including a circus, museums, an array of restaurants, and more.”

Including already implies that a circus, museums, and an array of restaurants are only some of what the city has to offer—so we don’t need to say and more, which is vague anyway.

Alternatively, you might write, “The city offers a circus, museums, an array of restaurants, and more.”

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1/3/24 1/3/24

Hot Tip for Writers Who Want to Raise Rates

The tool I use to make smart, informed rate increases

Hey, freelance writers. It’s not too late to raise your rates for 2024. Before you send that email to your clients notifying them of changes, do this first:

Add data about past projects to your email. Data will make your clients clear on the benefits they’ve gotten from you and therefore happy that they’ve invested in you—and eager to keep the collaboration going.

To get the data you need …

Track every piece of content for every client.

Photo by

Fabian Blank

Unsplash

Easy Tracking

Tracking is not time-consuming, especially if you do it from the get-go. (I once made a tracker after a year of working with a client and scoured every invoice between us to record the data.)

I use a simple Google Sheet, which you can find at the bottom of this post.

For every blog post I write for a Wall Street Journal–bestselling author, I note:

➡ the date

➡ was the idea mine or the client’s?

➡ time spent writing

➡ time spent revising

➡ was it published? (if not, why not)

➡ how did it perform?

**If you don’t have access to performance metrics, get creative! I don’t have access to metrics for this client, but I do note which blog posts make the author’s Top Articles webpage, for example.**

This data will help you understand your value and see smart ways to increase your rates or change your packages.

I’ve used my tracker to support switching from an hourly rate to flat fee, increasing rates, and changing offers.

Recently I increased my flat fee 43% by including 90 minutes of revisions compared to 30 minutes previously.

My tracker showed that in 2+ years with this client, only a handful of blog posts needed 90+ minutes of revisions. The majority of blog posts needed 30 minutes or less of revisions, if any. Less than 20% needed between 30 and 90 minutes of revisions.

So I could increase my flat fee while offering the client a great benefit I knew they wouldn’t often need. Which means I earn more without always working more.

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Prepare to Negotiate

Did the author push back on the new fee? They did. The rate increase was, after all, significant.

But here’s another piece of freelance wisdom I’m learning to accept, albeit nervously: Clients challenging your rates is good. You should aim to reach their budget limits and get pushback.

When I had proposed a rate increase to the author a year prior, the rate wasn’t as high as I wanted it to be. I was scared to ask for too much. Yet the author accepted it without question, and I spent the rest of the year kicking myself for not asking for more.

This has been a sad pattern throughout my six-year freelance career.

Now I’m trying to get more comfortable with charging uncomfortably high. I feel more comfortable doing so when I have the data to show my work is worth that rate.

I want my rate increases to invite negotiation, even though I don’t enjoy it.

Negotiation is not my strong suit, and my clients are very smart and successful. Negotiating with them is intimidating.

When the author pushed back on my rate increase recently, they asked me to reiterate why the increase was so high. We discussed variations to what was included in the flat fee:

blog post, plus 90 minutes of free revisions
blog post, plus 30 minutes of free revisions, plus social media posts for each blog post (which would save the author the cost of paying someone else to do it)

Here, too, the tracker came in handy. I used it to advocate for the offering that would work best for both of us. I showed the author the value they would get from 90 minutes of revisions and, alternatively, the value from including social media posts.

Notably, I used the tracker to reject a variation that didn’t work for me. The author proposed using the 90 minutes to do the revisions and allocating any leftover time for social media. But my tracker showed that drafting a blog post sometimes takes me longer than expected and cuts into the time for revisions. It didn’t make sense to pack too much into a flat fee.

When I showed the client the data, they understood.

Ultimately, the author settled on the original offer I had made and even asked me to do a trial period of writing social media posts, paid by the hour.

The negotiations were a journey, but worth it.

**I’m sure there are much fancier trackers out there, but if you’re in Google Suite all day as I am, then feel free to copy the tracker I use.**