Filter words are a hidden saboteur of your writing – they’re lurking in your worldbuilding descriptions, your prose, even in your RPG alouds. And all the while, they’re alienating your audience. But they’re so easy to find and fix!
In this blog, we’ll explain what filter words are and why they might be sabotaging your writing. And we’ll help you find and cut them, to transform your writing, your worldbuilding, and your RPG games!
What are Filter Words in writing?
Filter words are – as the name suggests – words which filter the world of your story through a main character’s eyes. They’re an incredibly common way of describing worldbuilding and action.
Here’s an example:
Lena heard thunder rumble across the bay. She watched rain patter in thick drops onto the vast stones – slow then racing like her heartbeat, she thought. She smelled the spiced, earthy scent as the world around her seemed to open its lungs and release a deep sigh.
Can you spot the filter words in the above passage?
- Heard
- Watched
- Thought
- Smelled
- seemed
These words are literally filtering the scene description through the eyes, ears, nose and mind of Lena, our main character. We’re getting the worldbuilding second hand, through her senses.
While there’s nothing grammatically wrong with the passage above – it’s a perfectly adequate piece of scene description – it could be so much better, more immediate and more exciting.
Why avoid Filter Words?
Filter words hold your audience at a distance. They put a barrier between the sensations of your world, and your readers and players.
Generally, they come with good intention – an author or game writer is trying to include senses. But while sensory-rich writing is a great thing – in fact, we did a whole video lesson about how to do sensory writing right! – these filter words can actually dull your audience’s experience of the senses.
Even more, these words aren’t adding anything extra. If we’re in a character’s head – their Point Of View, to use a technical term – and there’s a sound, we can guess that she hears it. Readers are pretty smart and they know you won’t be describing things your characters can’t see unless you specifically say so.
So if these words aren’t adding anything to our prose, why are we letting them take up space?
How do you get rid of Filter Words in writing?
There are a few techniques to rewrite passages with filter words.
1. Remove the character from the equation
Instead of “Lena heard thunder rumble across the bay”, what about “Thunder rumbled across the bay”? It’s shorter, and you’re focussing on the active verb of the thunder, which makes the sentence feel more dynamic.
Once your character is established as the point of view character for a scene, you can drop the filters and let the audience have a more direct experience of the action.
2. Lean into the metaphor
“Seemed” is often used as a metaphor or simile apology! Many writers love strong imagery, but by adding “seemed” – which filters it through the character thoughts – they water it down.
Our example above has a “seemed” in it, that’s covering a metaphor:
She smelled the spiced, earthy scent as the world around her seemed to open its lungs and released a deep sigh.
Obviously the earth isn’t really sighing, it’s just what it seems like to the main character. If you remove seemed, and rewrite it as a real metaphor instead, you get:
A spiced, earthy scent rose around Lena, as the world opened its lungs in a deep sigh.
This now feels stronger, more whimsical and poignant, without the filter words getting in the way. And again, you’ll notice it’s more compact as well as being more immersive. The attention of our audience is sacred, and anything that isn’t needed – that isn’t serving a purpose – can be safely honed away.
3. Allow your character to think in real time (free indirect speech)
Another great way to remove filter words is with character thought, especially words like “she thought” or “she believed”.
Free indirect speech – that is, a character’s thoughts written as narration – is common in 3rd person point of view. (Jane Austen famously used it a lot!) It’s especially common for snarky or witty characters, and gives us a delicious insight into a character’s private world, their funniest and most secret thoughts and reactions.
There’s a “she thought” in our example text
She watched rain patter in thick drops onto the vast stones – slow then racing like her heartbeat, she thought.
In this case, we can simply remove “she thought”, and let the reader figure out that this is free indirect speech instead!
Rain pattered in thick drops onto the vast stones – slow then racing, like her heartbeat.
The result feels more evocative and powerful, and we feel like we are closer to Lena, deeper inside her experience, without the filter word.
How to avoiding Filter Words in game writing and RPG alouds
But what about in game writing, like in RPG alouds or scene description? What happens to filter words then?
Well, if you’re a dungeon master or game writer, you’re also not immune to filter words! It’s very common that, when trying to describe a rich sensory experience to players, we resort to filter words.
In fact, each of these Filter Word examples is taken from a published Role Playing Game adventure.
| Filter word | Rewrite |
| Through the foliage, you see a crude timber fortification | A crude timber fortification squats in the clearing |
| The boggy ground here feels firmer than any of the other clearings | Here the boggy ground squelches less than previous clearings |
| You hear enthusiastic clapping and chanting | Clapping and enthusiastic chanting fills the air |
By rewriting each example – and critically, removing the filter word – you actually get a much more evocative description.
Even more helpful for game writing, it removes the sensory variation that naturally occurs in players. Because as game writers we can’t predict what choices the players will make, or what their experience will be – there’s often a player character who can’t see, or who smells colors. Removing filters not only delivers a more immersive description, it removes that variable.
So now you know how to spot filter words, AND you know how to rewrite them. But how do you catch them all?
How do you find filter words in your writing?
To find filter words in writing, search tool is your best friend. In World Anvil, simply search your Manuscript – our novel writing software – or use your browser’s search feature in worldbuilding articles! Most other writing software has some kind of search too.
And what are you searching for? Well, your handy list of filter words! We’ve included one below for you!
One final tip, though, about hunting down filter words: don’t stress about filter words during your initial writing draft! Worrying about them as you initially create can get in the way of your writing flow, so leave them until your editing pass, or your second draft. They’ll be there, waiting for you to hone them away, leaving only your most immersive, powerful writing.
A list of filter words to search for
- See
- Hear
- Smell
- Feel
- Watch
- Realize
- Think
- Seem
- Notice
- Look
- Glance
- Observe
- View
- Stare
- Scan
- Spot
- Peek
- Experience
- Sense
- Know
- Understand
- Wonder
- Imagine
- Recall
- Remember
- Suppose
- Figure
- Guess
