What are Filter Verbs? And Why Should you Eliminate Them?

10/23/2025 | Anna Hawkins

If you’ve been writing for any length of time, you’ve probably heard that you shouldn’t be using filter verbs. But what are filter verbs, exactly, and why is it considered bad to use them? In this blog post, I’ll discuss all the ins and outs of filter verbs and how to improve your writing by eliminating them.

What are filter verbs?

Filter verbs are verbs that interpose an unnecessary barrier between the reader and what the character in a story is experiencing. Using them shifts the focus away from the action to the character, which can bleed tension, interrupt flow, and generally just be frustrating from a reader’s perspective. Also, if you’re planning to submit your manuscript to agents, it’s important to minimize your use of filter verbs, as many agents see them as a sign to reject manuscripts.

If you’ve ever heard the advice “show, don’t tell” (and what writer hasn’t?), this applies to filter verbs as well. Filter verbs tell the reader what’s happening on the page, rather than showing the reader the scene and allowing them to read between the lines.

Often, overuse of filter verbs is a sign of an inexperienced writer. That’s nothing to be ashamed of! Every writer is inexperienced at some point in their journey. But it’s important to learn to recognize filter verbs so you can improve your writing craft.

“But Anna!” you cry. “You’ve told me what filter verbs do, but you still haven’t explained what I need to look for in my manuscript!” Fear not, reader, for below are some examples of filter verbs:

• Verbs relating to the senses – these verbs make up most of your common filter verbs. These are verbs such as “felt” (by far our biggest offender!), “saw”, “looked”, “heard”, “tasted”, and “smelled”.

• Verbs relating to thoughts – these verbs aren’t cited as offenders very often, but they’re still filter verbs, imposing that filter between the reader and what the character is thinking. These are verbs such as “remembered”, “realized”, “knew”, “decided”, and “noted”.

Searching for these verbs in your manuscript is a good way to start cutting down on your use of filter verbs. But this isn’t an exhaustive list! Rather, look through your entire manuscript with a critical eye toward any language that feels as though it’s imposing a filter between the reader and the story.

So, what does overuse of filter verbs look like in practice? Check out the paragraph below:

Gwendolyn felt the dragon fly overhead, the rush of wind from its beating wings near strong enough to knock her down. She watched as it wheeled around for a second pass, hearing its roar echoing from the canyon walls. She knew she had to do something now, or she wouldn’t get another chance. As the dragon swooped low, Gwendolyn looked for the weak spot beneath its right foreleg. She noted its position, then let her arrow fly, feeling the thrum of the bowstring reverberate up to her shoulder. She saw the arrow strike true, noting how the dragon tried to recoil in the last instant. Gwendolyn watched as the dragon plummeted to the ground at her feet, feeling the canyon floor shake as it hit. She realized then that its scales were red, and she remembered that was the same shade as the dragon that killed her family, years ago. Gwendolyn’s fingers tightened around her bow. She knew then, all dragons were monsters, and she decided she wouldn’t rest until she’d killed every last one.

Every sentence in that paragraph has at least one filter verb. Some have more. This is an extreme example of course; even inexperienced writers don’t generally use quite so many filter verbs, but hopefully it helps you see how overuse of filter verbs can affect your writing and frustrate readers.

Fun Fact!

If you read the above example and thought, “wow, this reads like something ChatGPT would write”, you’re not alone! Even as I typed the paragraph I couldn’t shake the feeling that what I was writing felt like it was AI-generated. And there’s good reason for that! AI language models emulate written text that’s been scraped from all over the internet, averaging out quality and style based on the quality and style of what the model is fed. In AI-generated text, common words (like “and” and “the”) show up more often than in human-written text on average, because of their statistical likelihoods. This is true for filter verbs, too. They are common in work written by inexperienced authors, which is used to train the AI model, making them even more common in text generated by the model. And so, the example paragraph that I wrote myself ends up emulating AI, emulating human authors.

Why eliminate filter verbs?

Eliminating filter verbs removes the unnecessary barrier between reader and story and gives the reader direct access to the action. Without filter verbs getting in the way, readers can experience the action alongside the character, rather than being told what the character is experiencing.

Removing filter words is also a way for you as the author to extend some trust to your readers. Readers like being able to interpret writing for themselves, rather than being told, report-style, what’s happening. If you allow the reader to interpret that Gwendolyn is watching the dragon because the narrative describes it wheeling around in the sky, they will feel more engaged with your story.

Beyond that, filter verbs are just redundant. The reader already knows that Gwendolyn is watching the dragon wheel around in the sky, because the paragraph is written from her perspective. Of course she’s seeing what’s happening in the scene! Rather than telling your reader that “Gwendolyn watched the dragon wheel around”, it’s better to skip Gwendolyn’s watching and just show the reader the dragon wheeling in the sky.

Check out our example from before, this time written without filter verbs:

The dragon flew overhead, the rush of wind from its beating wings near strong enough to knock Gwendolyn down. It wheeled around for a second pass, its roar echoing from the canyon walls. She had to do something now, or she wouldn’t get another chance. As the dragon swooped low, Gwendolyn aimed for the weak spot beneath its right foreleg and let her arrow fly, the thrum of the bowstring reverberating up to her shoulder. The dragon tried to recoil in the last instant, but the arrow struck true, felling the great beast. The canyon floor shook as the dragon plummeted to the ground at Gwendolyn’s feet. Its scales were red, the same shade as the dragon that had killed her family, years ago. Gwendolyn’s fingers tightened around her bow. Dragons were monsters. And she wouldn’t rest until she’d killed every last one.

Removing the filter verbs didn’t take anything away from the paragraph, in fact, removing them improved the flow of the prose and made the paragraph easier to read.

Do I need to eliminate every filter verb?

No! As with any piece of writing advice, it’s about balance. Minimize the number of filter verbs in your manuscript, but remember that context matters too. In some cases (rare!), filter verbs can improve the flow and clarity of your prose. And in other cases, you may have included a filter verb for an artistic reason. That is ok! No one will knock you as an author for leaving some filter verbs in your manuscript for clarity, flow, or artistic reasons. Just make sure you can recognize them when they crop up and you’re not overusing them unnecessarily.

Recognizing and minimizing the filter verbs in your manuscript can help you improve your craft as an author. For more advice on improving your writing craft, check out my previous blog posts on incluing and POV. Need professional help with filter verbs (and more)? Check out our manuscript evaluation and line editing services!