Confessions of overused words

The Judge

The Judge

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On another thread, Teresa mentioned words which we tend to use habitually, to the detriment of our otherwise impeccable prose. I thought I might as well start the confessions rolling.

Just -- as in 'he was just shutting the door when...' No excuses for this one, other than it's handy.

Sudden/suddenly -- the curse of amateur writers everywhere I imagine. No excuses, and search and destroy is required more often than not.

Even -- as in 'Even his brother hadn't been able to make money on the deal'. I love this one -- to me it's so useful for speedy characterisation and explanation. Take away 'even' from that sentence and we're left knowing the man hadn't made money but that's it; with it, we know he's a man who usually did make money, so something is odd about this particular deal. I try to ration myself to no more than one a chapter, but...

The good news is, at least I can see these words and make an effort to extirpate them. It's the words I use and don't see -- those are the real problem.

So, any confessions out there? Any excuses or rationalisations? Any unrepentent over-users?

J
 
My current demon words (I can't seem to exorcise them) are "would," "could," "should," and "might." These are words that I consider pretty wishy-washy, and using them together generally strikes me as particularly pernicious.

BUT the fact is, just at the moment, my main characters are in situations where they are doing a lot of speculating, and weighing a lot of alternatives, and questioning what to do next, and calculating the consequences, and worrying about what somebody else might be doing, and just so completely awash in possibilities, it seems like I need these words to express their dilemmas.

Nevertheless, no matter how they justify themselves, I still feel like they are stalking me.
 
The word 'before'. I am sure my computer inserts this word when I'm not looking.

There could be another reason, of course. I'm just not good at writing. :eek:
 
Words you use too much or avoid...

Okay, I will start this one off, Teresa’s idea though, he-he.

Words I avoid; were / being (too passive for my licking). I hate them with a vengeance, so much so if I were an agent and being mindful of my opinion, I would...

Words I use too much; look / mumbled (they say it all, quietly)... I look through my MS, red pen in hand, mumbling.

Steve
 
Re: Words you use too much or avoid...

There's actually - a word I use too much in speech (but at least I've kicked the habit of beginning and end a sentence with it) - another thread on this self-same topic in the Workshop:
Perhaps a friendly moderator (that's all of them, of course**) would merge the threads.





** - Actually, I overuse the phrase, of course, in my posts, actually.
 
Threads merged as if by magic.

(And I'm flattered that two of you thought enough of my idea to start threads.)
 
Is there a way to scan for words that show up at a rate greater than a given amount in Word? I'm thinking that words that you over use without realizing it would be the greatest issue. If you could find all the words that show up more than say 6 times per page, it may help you to find them.
As for my overused words, I think they change periodically.
 
In word2007, there is a pair of binoculars in the top left hand corner, a kinda search facility. What this also does is show variations of said word, for example - was, were, to-be, and so on... When you click the binoculars it opens a tab where you type the word you are looking for, in the bottom left of this tab is a button, which says ‘more’. Open that and there you will find a myriad of options.

BTW, this is a quick way to jump from chapter to chapter without formatting.

I am not sure if there is an option to find words that appear often, as you say, six or more times...


Not sure if the same is available in older versions.

Steve
 
Thus, and, but.

I love the word thus. I have no idea why. I use it all the time.
 
In dialogue - 'well'. In real life, 'fair enough'. It's funny, I hear myself say it and cringe everytime, and yet still can't stop myself next time....
 
ctg said:
My own sins: Then again, in the other hand, but and nevertheless
Click to expand...

I have a long term problem with all such words: but, yet, nevertheless, although, etc.

Somehow, I feel that I have to qualify everything I've said. This habit is so hard for me to break, I've even given it a name: I call it motorboat disease, when what I've written comes out like, "but but but but."
 
Teresa Edgerton said:
I have a long term problem with all such words: but, yet, nevertheless, although, etc.

Somehow, I feel that I have to qualify everything I've said. This habit is so hard for me to break, I've even given it a name: I call it motorboat disease, when what I've written comes out like, "but but but but."
Click to expand...

Otherwise known as lawyers' disease -- it's always useful to have a get out clause just in case something goes wrong. Other symptoms include: perhaps, maybe, possibly, likely.

J
 
I recently went on holiday with my younger brother. In recent years he's taken to saying the word "frankly" far too often, so I decided to train him out of it by making a buzzer-type noise every time he used it. By the end of the holiday he was even picking himself up on it when I hadn't even noticed, and I haven't heard him use it since. So there's a tip for you.
 
That's fine, HB; until he does the same to you....


Back on topic: I'm shocked how I overuse so many of the words to which many of you admit. (It's a wonder my fiction has any space for useful nouns and verbs.) I've been conscious of overusing just and even for years but, frankly, it's hard to break the habit. And some of my characters love speculating (much good it does them), so there's a profusion of woulds, coulds, mights and shoulds. And then there are the howevers and the buts.

(I think I've stopped inserting Well in dialogue - for a long time I used it merely as a 'convenient' (aka naff) way of introducing the identity of the speaker: "Well," said X, "you would say that...." - but it was a long struggle.)
 
Reading this reminded me, when I first started, I used, hmmm, as in lips clenched. In the real world we use it as often as umming and erring. And when a women says mmm, happy days...:eek:

Interesting, in my current MS the wimpy mothers ummms and errrs and the bulshie father says, 'stop umming and erring woman and spit it out.' So it works, still had to remove around ten per chapter, you can over do it he-he.:confused:

Has any body started using txt language yet? lol - pmsl -ffs - etc, I guess in YA it could/would be user-friendly. Hey new thread... Teresa?
 
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