What does being "heavy handed" mean? And how does one avoid it?

Question

I've come across the term "heavy handed" before, and it seems to be one of the more egregious mistakes that one can make while writing - at least that's the impression I get from critics.What does this term mean (with examples, if possible), and how does one avoid it?

Answer 1

When someone claims your writing is heavy-handed, it usually means you're "overwriting." And by overwriting, I mean that you might add too many superfluous details that in no way advance the plot, character development, etc. Avoiding unnecessary phrases can be tricky and will take a bit of practice. Look at your sentences. Ask yourself: is there a way I can rephrase this line and maintain the exact same meaning? If yes, then you know your writing is a bit heavy-handed and can be pared down a bit for clarity purposes.

Overwriting can mean you're adding unnecessary character actions (are you describing how a character "sighed" or "shouted" or "lamented" every other paragraph?), writing run-ons (are you adding too many verbs and conjunctions per sentence?), or creating "purpled" prose (are you using long, florid vocabulary words and excessive details?). Of course, it isn't necessarily limited to these things, but these would be examples of heavy-handed writing.

For instance, take the following sentences I randomly came up with: "I picked up the exceptionally large potted plant that my mother gave me for my ninth birthday. I remembered how much I loved the glittering red jewels on the ceramic mold and they reminded me deeply of my mother's eyes and how they glinted against the night." This seems like a bit much, right? In the two sentences above, I underlined particular phrases and clauses that could be easily omitted or synthesized for clarity purposes. This line is overwritten because of the needless adjectives, adverbs, and verbs ("glinted," "glittering," "ceramic mold," "exceptionally large"). The second sentence can also be split up into two different sentences as well. The prose in the following example tries to be florid, almost to the point where the prose comes across as stilted. I had the same issue with my writing, but one thing that helped me was cutting out unnecessary adverbs and phrases and balancing the flow between each line. For example, you might pair a short sentence with a long sentence. At the same time, another thing that might help with the "heavy-handedness" is avoiding the classic adage "show don't tell," which means you should avoid saying too many details forthright. It's okay to withhold details; in fact, you might benefit from adding subtle details and hints that offer insight to the character's motivations and actions as opposed to explicitly stating it. Hopefully, this helps and feel free to reach out with any questions!