: Re: Is there any popular wisdom on the word "seem"? I've just started noticing this word a lot in books. Something about it rubs me the wrong way. For example, I read a book where the following

@Kristi637

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The thing is the two say very different things, this one:

I stumbled to the ground and hit my head. I got back up. The walls and floors seemed to be moving

makes it clear that for the POV character they are aware that the walls and floors aren't really moving even as they are experiencing it.

Whereas in:

I stumbled to the ground and hit my head. I got back up. The walls and floors started to move

it's..fuzzier. They aren't thinking clearly enough to be cognizant of that distinction in the moment.

I've (unfortunately) taken a few knocks to the head over the years and in more severe cases the latter scenario definitely happens. It takes a second or so for your conscious brain to catch up and apply reason to what it's perceiving, so when I read those two passages I'm automatically drawing parallels to my own experiences and the second speaks to me of a more severe knock and a greater level of impairment.

There is also the matter of tense to consider - if the perspective of the book is that of a definitively past tense first person account where the POV character recounting the story from a reference frame beyond the action (e.g. it's a journal or a tale being told to another character etc) then putting the mistaken perception as if it were "fact" is clunky at best.

If you've got a particular dislike for the word "seem" itself then there are other ways to express the same thing without it:

I stumbled to the ground and hit my head. I got back up. For a moment it felt as if the walls and floors were moving.

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