As a modern fiction writer, your words have to do some serious heavy lifting.

Shorter attention spans combined with endless entertainment options mean that we have a very condensed amount of time to hook a reader.

On top of that, it’s just good storytelling to ensure your words do more than one thing for you. Not only does solid word choice accelerate the pace of your story, but constructing your scenes carefully keeps your work from feeling cumbersome and unwieldy. Being meticulous with the way you include elements keeps the plot heading in the right direction.

So, what do I mean when I say your words should accomplish more than one goal? Let’s talk about it.

Every story has the same basic elements: characters, setting, plot, conflict, theme, point of view, tone, and style. As you’re working on your story, consider how each sentence and paragraph can show off more than one of these elements.

For example, when you’re trying to decide when and where to start your story, you might feel a great need to introduce your main character. That’s good! But your first scene needs to do a lot more than that. It should also give the reader a glimpse into the story’s setting and maybe also its tone. Or maybe you want to start off with a scene that shows off your unique point of view and narrative style?

Whatever you decide, choose words, sentences, and scenes that accomplish more than one goal. Taking that a step further: consider words, sentences, and scenes that don’t just do the heavy lifting well, but choose those that do it best.

Maybe you’re hoping to show off your setting as a place of wonder. It’s not enough to fill pages and pages with description that serves only to build your world in the reader’s mind. While building your world, those same words should be working hard on other fronts. Perhaps hinting at the conflict to come or the hazards this world presents to characters.

There’s a fun bit of storytelling in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone that illustrates this nicely.

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn’t open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren’t really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending.

At first glance, these two sentences feel like nothing but straightforward description of Hogwarts. But they accomplish so much more than that.

Harry’s point of view as he shares this information with the reader is clearly seen, as is the whimsical tone of the story. We begin to see the castle as not just a location, but a personality–almost a character. The description is well-placed as detail Harry notices when moving from the Great Hall to his room in the tower, so it transitions us efficiently from one scene to another.

Most important though is that this description sets up a major plot point to come. Later in the story, Harry and his friends are caught out of bed after lights out and they get lost scrambling through the castle. JK Rowling doesn’t have to stop for a ton of description at this point–she can keep her characters moving because she asked her words to do some heavy lifting early on.

And because she did such an excellent job of it, the reader understands how the young wizards could get lost in such a place. Two sentences, masquerading as simple description, laid the groundwork; as Harry and crew are dashing up and down staircases, we feel, just as the characters do, that the castle has a mind and will of its own.

These are the kinds of moments you should look to create as you write. Sometimes it’s easier to address these issues in the editing stage, but you’ll save yourself some work if you make it a practice to look for ways your words can pull double or even triple duty as you draft. Like any tool of the trade, thinking this way gets easier over time. It’s a discipline and getting good at it takes practice.

So, let me ask: have you applied this tool to your writing? If not, how would your current work in progress change if you asked your words, sentences, and scenes to do a little more heavy lifting?

Shannon Dittemore is an author and speaker. Her books include the Angel Eyes trilogy, a supernatural foray into the realm of angels and demons, as well as the fantastical adventure novel Winter, White and Wicked. Its sequel, Rebel, Brave and Brutal is due out January 10, 2023.

Shannon’s stories feature strong female leads grappling with fear and faith as they venture into the wilds of the unknown. She’s often wondered if she’s writing her own quest for bravery again and again.

It’s a choice she values highly. Bravery. And she’s never more inspired than when young people ball up their fist and punch fear in the face.

To that end, Shannon takes great joy in working with young writers, both in person and online at Go Teen Writers, an instructional blog recognized by Writer’s Digest four years running as a “101 Best Websites for Writers” selection.

For more about Shannon and her books, please visit her website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.