How to Make Your Writing Less Stiff 8 | "to-be" and auxiliary verbs
As I go through editing my latest manuscript, I'm faced with the dilemma of when to drop a to-be verb, but also when to keep it and how the differences between the two in any given situation can make just a little... a little *garnish* of a difference.
Am, is, are, was, were; a subset of auxiliary verbs
To do, to be, to have (simplified)
Auxiliary verbs tend to indicate tense, but we use them more often as crutch verbs, filler verbs, because you can just conjugate the verb itself to the proper tense without the need of the auxiliary verb.
The advice generally goes to remove these, as they count as filler words when followed up by a second verb. Versus the TBV or AXV and an adjective.
He does look / He looks
She is cooking / She cooks
They were standing / They stood
I am fishing / I fish
She does cry / She cries
We have slept / We slept
He is afraid / He fears
She was sorry / She regrets
They were happy / They cheered
I was confused / I hesitated
The verb+adjective combo can't so easily drop the verb without changing either the tone, the flow, or the actions of the characters, because one is an act of doing, and one is a state of being (for the most part, 'fear' is one of those exceptions in English).
You would have to rearrange the sentence, e.g. "I was confused by this" to "This confused me," to elimiate the TBV. Which, most of the time, does help the narrator feel less passive in the story, but, again, we're here for flavor text, not an MLA formatting guide.
So, sometimes the inclusion of the TBV or AXV adds subtext to the action itself.
"He does look" has slightly more urgency and weight than simply "he looks" because the AXV emphasizes that this is an action the actor might not have taken otherwise, for better or for worse.
In the silence, she stands there huffing, voice wrecked from crying as he heads for the open door. “Don’t you walk away from me.”
He turns, face impassive. “There’s nothing left to be said.”
vs
He does turn, face impassive. “There’s nothing left to be said.”
The latter indicates that this might be hesitation or regret on his part, as opposed to a decisive, quick action, or that this is an action that she, the narrator, didn't expect him to take.
It also helps convey the tone of voice (or at least the general direction of the level of emotion in a voice). This absolutely varies on a case-by-case basis and the context of the action and should not be abused.
One of the juicier verbs for subtext here is "try"
He tries to coach her through how to do it properly.
vs
He does try to coach her through how to do it properly.
The former is direct and simple. He is attempting (he attempts) to help but through the act of "trying" and not "doing" there's an indication that she isn't getting it.
The latter is a little more hopeless, where he and she both know that whatever she's attempting to learn, she won't succeed, but he's doing it anyway. Maybe because he cares or he feels bad, or, that he wasn't going to help her, but something changed his mind.
Deciding when to use these helps convey the inner thoughts of non-narrating characters without head-hopping, and also shows the biases of the narrator.