Nominalization—Seek to Avoid It

A few weeks ago, I joined a webinar that showed the ins and outs of ProWritingAid, a writing platform that almost-not-quite takes the place of an editor. Especially when one is dealing with first drafts and blog posts. 😉 (Check it out here to see their features.)

That webinar alerted me to a rule I haven’t paid much attention to over the years. In fact, I didn’t know much about it, period: Avoid nominalization.

Say what?

(Well, that’s what I said, anyway.)

What is nominalization? Oh, my heavens, even the google definition is enough to make me snore! Basically, this writing style takes verbs or adjectives and transforms them into weak nouns, omitting the subject and inadvertently encouraging passive writing. The result leaves you with muddy, wordy sentences that sound textbook-stale, rather than novel-icious. (I’ve already reworked several in editing this post!)

The bonus in routing these sneaky phrases from your WIP? A slimmer word count.

Some of these sentences are easy to spot, as they typically contain a noun ending in –ion; a verb ending in –ing + “of”; or a verb masquerading as a noun (ex: The wailing unsettled me). Curious how many instances of nominalization slipped through the cracks in my sequel’s fourth draft, I did a word search, and found and corrected the following sentences in a few minutes’ time. Hopefully you’ll get a feel for what to look for in your own writing.

• “Jangles is calling for your suspension from the team.” (9 words)
• “Jangles wants you suspended from the team.” (7 words)

• I stare out the window, my body jostling in tandem with the motion of the train…. (16)
• I stare out the window, my body jostling in tandem with the train’s motion…. (14)

• I give her a reassuring smile as Niklas kneels beside the boy and engages him in a conversation. (18)
• I give her a reassuring smile as Niklas kneels to converse with the boy. (14)

• Perhaps she disliked it as much as he did, but was forced into certain decisions by her parents. (19)
• Perhaps she disliked it as much as he did, but her parents forced her to decide. (17)

• The last thing we need is another person pacing Flitterndorf, exhausting the question of how she can help. (18)
• The last thing we need is another person pacing Flitterndorf, seeking ways to help. (14)

• …save for the actual baking of the molds. (8)
• …save for when they bake the molds. (7)

• My ears prick at new sounds: the repetitive clicking of heels and clip-clop of hooves. (15)
• My ears prick at new sounds: heels clicking, hooves clip-clopping. (10)

In rewriting these sentences, I cut twenty words from my WIP (and fixed two passive sentences)! Twenty words might not sound like a lot, but the number adds up with each writing rule I follow in editing (follow while allowing for flexibility). Rules like: cutting out filler words; trimming prepositions; killing most adverbs; and routing redundancy (lift up—do we lift any other way?). And since my current draft hovers at 130K words, I need to cut as many words as possible!

Did you find this helpful? If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask in the comment section below. One of us will try to help—or guide you in the right direction. 🙂 And for fun, click here if you’d like to watch a short video that presents this concept in an entertaining way.