I have a new word to add to my hate list. It’s “it”.
I am trying to hand my publisher a clean manuscript. The analyzer asked me the remove 5 cases of “there” (no problem) Once case of something else (it was easy, so I don’t remember). It told me that I had 109 uses of “it” and I should remove 52 of them.
This task was definitely a little more daunting. In the end, I was able to get it down to 77 cases. The analyzer is still telling me to remove 20 cases, but these are all in dialog. If you haven’t noticed, people use “it” in dialog, and if you try to remove “it” your characters start to sound like Robots… so my “its” are staying. If the living breathing editors want to mention it, I will deal with it then.
One thing I did learn though, is that narration can be stronger without the word “it”. Here are a few real case examples from LAST WINTER RED
In this first example, I took out both “it” and the second reference to the basket:
She raced past the death and decay and threw her arms around his neck, tipping her basket to the side. Lori grabbed it before the vials spilled. Her eyes narrowed disapprovingly as she set the basket on the table beside them.
This paragraph always bothered me, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. Now it flows much better… The revise, without the “it” and the second “basket”
She raced past the death and decay and threw her arms around his neck, tipping her basket to the side. Lori grabbed the wicker handle before the vials spilled. Her eyes narrowed disapprovingly as she set the precious parcel on the table beside them.
Here’s another one. Same as before, it wasn’t reading well. We will be removing two occurrences of “it”. I changed “the well” because I used the word “well” in the previous paragraph
He pulled on the strings, and a bucket rose from the well. He tipped it to fill her pail and handed it back to her.
Changed to:
He pulled on the strings, and a bucket rose from the ground. He poured the water into her pail and passed the handle to her, balancing the container with his other hand.
When you pull these examples out of the text, these changes almost seem obvious, but believe me, all my betas read right over this, and I need to admit that the sentences are richer without that annoying little “it”.
How do you feel about “it”?
Jennifer M Eaton 
Great post Jennifer and written with a mirth! “it” is one of those words one does not use so much while speaking, but use it plenty while writing. “It” can be so annoying to the reader!!
Keep “it” up!!
It sure can. It seems to work in dialog, though.
Honestly, I catch myself often tossing it out. It is so utterly ambiguous, I have no alternative for it. 🙂
Excellent tip! Will need to go over my story and sort out my ‘it’.
“It’s” tricky
Sounds like a viable tool. Just don’t let the tool take over the worker’s job completely. A person’s creative prose could end up being flowery rather than “clean”;-)
Absolutely. It is, after all a computer. It does not understand everything.
I never would have thought one word could make do much difference! Every post like this just teaches me that I still have so, so much to learn. And I have a lot of improvements to make. O.o
Everyone can improe a little something. Writing, no matter where you are, is a journey.
When I was in tenth grade, I learned all about the magic of the “pronoun reference error,” and my teacher got me to stop using the word “it” for the next several years. Sadly, none of my other teachers ever cared, and I started using it more and more, and now I use it all the time. I’m also incredibly aware of how often I’ve used it in this post. It’s (darn it) funny how much better those sentences were once you removed that tiny, two letter word. Definitely gives me a lot to think about. Thanks! 🙂
did you know you can use the word “that” six times in a row and it can still be grammatically correct?
As a stutter?
funny, but not as a stutter.
Here is a link to my blog post inspired by this one. Hope you think I did the subject justice.
http://robincoyle.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/strong-vs-weak-words-part-13/
Yay! Attack that nasty “it” Great post. Spread the word!
Valuable edits. Thanks for sharing
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Great points I never thought of. What editor do you use?
Auto Crit. It highlights thing I never even thought of.
I just tried that out. It looks amazing.
And now I am mentally flagging ‘it’ as I write…aargh.
I actually leave “it” while i’m wrinting, and will go back later while I’m editing. I don”t like to ruin my “mojo” thinking too much while I’m imersed in a scene.
Definitely with you there. Nothing like worrying about your prose to ensure that you write like a tugboat in a mudbath.
Tugboat in a mudbath? Ummm … I think I’m with you.
Chug chug, glup glup…the sound effects just put me right off.
This is so helpful! I’ve never really thought about ‘it’ before, but when I checked, I’m guilty, guilty, guilty. Thank you 🙂
Awesome! Always glad to help!
LOL I put it intead of I That’s how sensative I was to the word.
I just thought it was another “it” joke to add to the list below 🙂
I had it firmly placed in my brain so that I could put it on my list of words to edit and my brain took over.
Ha! Too funny!
At first It thought how techical it all was but then I read your examples and you’re right. The flow is easy. My eyes moved quicky and my brain didn’t need time to catch up. Thank you very much, it gives me a lot to think about.
Great! I’m glad it was helpful!
Excellent post. I am writing a series on taking out needless or weak words and replacing them with vibrant words. Your examples of “it” are great. I’m going on a hunt for them in my manuscript!
When I started, I thought it was dumb, but I was quite pleased with the results.
I am working on it right now and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Wow. I can’t thank you enough for this. i will credit you when I add “IT” to my list of overused words when I blog about it.
Yay! I love “it” when something I rant about helps so many!
As much as I love you, I think I hate you too, in the nicest possible way.
🙂
awesome post! Thanks for your examples. This will help a lot as I read through my own writing now. Your revisions were so much better without IT.
Isn’t it amasing? It seemed fine, but it is so dern better without “it”
Arrrgh. (no idea how to spell that). I just found four ‘its’ on my first page. Crap, crap, crappity crap. Now I have to go through the manuscript looking for ‘it’. I had no idea I used ‘it’ that much. Back to arrgh.
Ha! Better to find “it” now. The good thing is, I was riddled with “its” but the publisher still saw the good in my manuscript.
Your new paragraphs are smoother, easier and more interesting to read. Thanks for sharing the tips.
Thanks so much
Its a computer and you are not. Trust your gut, if you need them and you’ve thought about it, KEEP them. 🙂
Oh, yes. I’ve kept all that were necessary. I found they were really easy to remove in the narritive, but they were important in the dialog.
Then you’re done. 🙂
I am very aware of it now. Usually it (ha!) is ‘that’ which jumps out at me and drives me mad 😉 Thanks for pointing the use of it out!
I am finding myself using it a lot in these replies, and I have a big smile on my face. 🙂
I had a similar result with the autocrit software. I’m good for most of the overused words, but there and it I am terrible at. Although now I’m more aware of overusing the words, I am getting much better at ‘it’. And I agree the writing is stronger without them.
Yes, so much more descriptive and emotional.
I always think about it when I write it, but sometimes it’s really difficult to get rid of it. Sometimes it’s overwhelming to think of how to replace it with something stronger than it, but we have to keep searching for it until we make it right. Thank you for pointing out how annoying it can be. I have often sent it to the playground in my mind but it escapes often. I guess I’ll have to tie it down but I’ll have to find it first. I’m off on the quest for the annoying it. Anyone else ready to join in?
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m surprised “it” makes such a difference. Who would have thought “it”!
Okay, these “it” jokes are getting a bit much 🙂 🙂
I may have missed this in previous posts, but which program do you use for analyzing your text?
Autocrit. You need a subscription for full-length (which I found really valuable) but you can drop smaller pieces (I think five pages) into it for free to try “it” out.
Thank you! I’ll check “it” out. 🙂
Pronouns. Boon and bane, they are. Thank you for this. I’ll know to look for it now. Literally.
My, that was clever. *cheesy grin*
Cheesy. Very Cheesy
You’re welcome. *cheesy grin*
😉
will have to do an examination of that myself now
It’s surprising
…hmmm never noticed it before, but hyper aware of it now.
Hyper it. Sounds scary