Tips for Writers: the ‘ing’/‘as’ rule.

This week in Behind Your Creative Life, we look at a writing rule that is becoming increasingly overlooked. Do you recognise this mistake?

I asked myself the question recently:

If I only wrote one more writing tips article, what would I want it to be?

I actually came up with two answers of equal weight, so there’s at least another writing tip coming after this one. Both of them are purely selfish, because as I read books these days, I wish that more writers had this knowledge in order to make my own reading that much more enjoyable.

One of them has to do with the lost art of metaphors (coming soon). The other is the ‘ing/as’ rule.

I see it all the time lately, in almost every recently published book – including books traditionally published. In fact, it’s so common, AI (trained on books it’s fed) actually recommends it as a legitimate option for a sentence. I know because I’ve tested it several times and I’m actually on a mission to “train” or “correct” AI out there.

Perhaps you’ve seen this too, or been guilty of it yourself?

Here is a typical sentence I see:

1 ‘Opening the second-storey window, he leaned out and shouted down to the visitor.’

It seems so plausible on first read, the kind of sentence you would rush past in a book and not think twice about. That’s because the three beats of action are so close together. Opening a window so you can lean out and shout down are three very close steps of the same action of calling out below to the visitor.

But did you know that the ‘ing’ in ‘opening’ in this sentence means the three things are happening at exactly the same time? And therein lies the problem. You can’t be opening the window, leaning out, and shouting down all at the same time.

You have to open the window first before you can lean out. And you lean out before you shout. You might be starting to shout as your head goes out the window, but you’re not doing all three at once. That’s a physical impossibility.

Better: ‘He opened the second-storey window, leaned out and shouted down to the visitor.’

Plausible: ‘He opened the second-storey window, then, leaning out, shouted down to the visitor.’ This one you could argue for because ‘leaning’ is a verb that keeps going through the action of this. You’re still leaning out until you have popped your head back inside.

2 ‘As I crawled out of the tent, I knotted my shoelaces.’

The same would be true if I used the word ‘as’ in this way. You are saying that at the exact same time as you are crawling – on hands and knees – out of that tent, you are also sitting or squatting and tying up your shoelaces. Again, an impossibility.

I know they’re easy to do. I confess I’ve slipped in a few dodgy ones myself – the ones that sound plausible until you really think about it, like “Standing up, he stepped back.” So easy to do. And we think we’re getting rid of all those pesky “glue words” – ‘and’/‘then’ etc – which people have come to think are “wrong” these days. But it ends up creating problems rather than solving them.

Watch out for the incorrect use of ‘ing’ and ‘as’ in your own writing. And as much as we can, let’s spread the word so we can push back the tide of incorrect usage before it’s too late.

About the Author: Lisa Saul

Fiction writer · creative guide · lifelong storyteller … Lisa Saul writes in the quiet spaces between words and paint. For more than twenty years she has worked side by side with her sister Naomi — shaping novels, illustrations, notebooks, and the little studio world behind this blog. A lifelong maker, Lisa has moved through journalism, photography, editing, watercolour, and award-nominated fiction, always returning to the same thread: story. Whether she’s writing a novel, illustrating a notebook, or sharing a moment from her creative life, Lisa brings a thoughtful, honest voice shaped by imagination, experience, and a deep love of helping others grow creatively.