The Science of Filter Words

What’s wrong with this sentence?

He saw the sun rise above the horizon and felt its warmth on his skin.

Grammatically, there’s nothing wrong with it, but most editors will take issue with the sentence as it is.

The problem?

The sentence contains not one, but two filter words.

Filter words are mostly verbs that have to do with what a character is sensing, experiencing, or thinking. They’re called “filter” words because they “filter” descriptive text through a character, instead of presenting it directly to the reader. Here’s a list of some common filter words:

Saw

Heard

Felt

Thought

Knew

Looked

Watched

Noticed

Remembered

With that in mind, can you find the filter words in the example sentence above?

Editors have a problem with filter words because, they say, the filter words get in the way of immersion for the reader. The intrusive words remind the reader that they are reading about a character rather than experiencing the world through the character’s eyes. So, many editors will ruthlessly recommend that you get scrub your writing of filter words.

The example sentence could become this:

The sun rose above the horizon. It was warm on his skin.

Filter words are often unnecessary. If you’re writing in the first-person or third-person-limited point of view, the most common points of view for fiction, anything you write about is, by definition, what the POV character “saw” or “knew.” You don’t need to tell us.

Some editors might go so far as to suggest you use “find & replace” on your manuscript to hunt down and eliminate filter words. That, in general, is a bad idea, because there are many, many exceptions to the “no filter words” rule.

Sometimes, you need a filter word to make a sentence make sense:

She insisted she didn’t steal the cookie, but he had seen her take it.

Sometimes, the action of the filter verb is the point of the sentence:

On the morning after he regained his vision, he saw the sun rise above the horizon.

If you’re writing in the third-person-omniscient point of view, or if you’re switching points of view, filter words are essential for making clear who’s experiencing what. We’ll dive into the complexities of point of view another time, but for now, know that these situations happen a lot.

Consider these two examples from Lily King’s Heart the Lover:

“You knew I’d write a novel about you.”

“There are two smart guys in the class. They sit up front together and I see only the backs of their heads, one with coppery brown hair and the other with a thick black ponytail.”

 In both cases, King’s filter words are both essential and well-used.

Bottom line: Don’t try to eliminate filter words from your writing. You need filter words, and if you try to scrub them wholesale, your writing will suffer.

Instead, learn to tell the difference between a filter word that is redundant or irrelevant and one that plays an important role in your sentence. Avoid the first one, and use the second one to your advantage. Learning to do that is not nearly as easy as using “find & replace,” but, trust me, it’s the way to go.