To be or not to be?

To be or not to be; that is the question. -Shakespeare

I'll admit it: when I first heard this, I was really confused. When I was younger, I would start thinking about that and wonder what it meant. I commented about it to a friend, and she said, "It means 'To write or not to write?' is the question, not 'Am I a good writer?'" I really like that- and I've been writing nonstop to make it the best of my abilities ever since.

However, there's a second part in this that also applies to writing. "To be" words (is, are, am, seem, were, was, seemed) are a big no-no, I've learned. They do more telling than showing, so it can ruin a sentence. If you look in some popular writing today, you can probably find a few "To be" words in the text, but there won't be very many. Coincidence?

While writing, I usually keep it vaguely there in my head that I should try to avoid these, and then I go back and change them when I edit it. It made my writing a lot better, and it'll do the same for yours, too.

Next time someone says "To be or not to be; that is the question" . . . When it comes to writing, the answer is definitely Not to be!

Kirah
(Can someone count how many times I used a "To Be" word in this post?)