What words are we overusing?

[barrett1987]

I just ctr +f'd the word THAT. Wow. I over use it a lot.

I'm going to do WAS next.

Is there any other words like this? At 60k i'd used THAT 330 times and even at a brief run through was able to drop over 10% of them without changing anything in the story.

What other words like this are there?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Looked, watched, glanced, listened, heard - most can go. Thought, half of those can go. Seemed, felt, ditto. In my case, turned.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The one I see a lot is "had." Many people narrate a long flashback with "had" for every verb. "She had opened the door and had walked inside." All you need to do to signal a flashback is one had, and then the rest of the verbs can stay in ordinary past tense.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Another had at the end is advisable, so that readers don't get confused when the switch is made from the flashback to the whenever the rest of the story is happening.

But if we are talking about words that we, ourselves, use too often, I used to use "with" a lot. And I have never been able to cure myself of the habit of starting too many sentences with "but." But I think I do it less often than I used to.

 

[ratsy]

I just checked a Short of mine for some of these words

Story is 5233 words long

That - 36 times
Was - 4 times
Looked - 18 times
Thought - 11 times
Had - 31 times

Those seem reasonable to me but I'm sure I have other words I use too often

 

[Ursa major]

The total number can be bad enough. When you use replace to add a Highlight to every occurrence, you'll see that some of your pages are positively bursting with them, giving a measles-like effect. And if you want to shock yourself, you can use different highlights for different words, giving your work 'multi-coloured measles'.


Warning: Although bulk highlighting doesn't sound as if it might permanently affect your work, it's still safer to try it out on a copy of your main work, just in case something does go awry.

 

[barrett1987]

I'll refer back to this thread when my WIP is done. Of that i'm sure.

 

[Ashleyne]

I’ve written 45,600 words of my current novel and I’ve use 'that' 406 times, mostly during dialogue. I’ve used 'which' 206 times and 'then' 207 times, although I tend to use 'then' to indicate the last motion in a set of actions (I always see 'and' as meaning 'at the same time as' or 'along with'). I’ve used 'and' over 2000 times.

These are all standard Structure Words. I feel like it’s rather appropriate and realistic that these words are used more often, seeing as in spoken language, Structure Words get used a lot more than Content Words.

I started writing ten months ago, though, so I might look further into the overuse of Structure Words on the chance that it could improve my writing, but I’m gonna finish my current novel first.

 

[Mouse]

Only only.

 

[Ursa major]

I’ve written 45,600 words of my current novel and I’ve use 'that' 406 times, mostly during dialogue. I’ve used 'which' 206 times and 'then' 207 times, although I tend to use 'then' to indicate the last motion in a set of actions (I always see 'and' as meaning 'at the same time as' or 'along with'). I’ve used 'and' over 2000 times.

These are all standard Structure Words. I feel like it’s rather appropriate and realistic that these words are used more often, seeing as in spoken language, Structure Words get used a lot more than Content Words.

I started writing ten months ago, though, so I might look further into the overuse of Structure Words on the chance that it could improve my writing, but I’m gonna finish my current novel first.

I would have thought that words like 'that' were used less in dialogue than formal writing. At any rate, I know (that) when I type here and am trying to be precise, I tend to edit add extra that's, because my first version of a post started out, in my head, as dialogue with another poster.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Another word that writers should not worry about using too much is "said." Some folks seem to struggle to make sure that every line of dialogue uses a different synonym for "said." First of all, there are many times when you don't need a "said" word (even "said" itself) at all. Secondly, "said" is one those words (like "that" and others noted by others) that is pretty much invisible to the reader.

 

[Ashleyne]

I would have thought that words like 'that' were used less in dialogue than formal writing. At any rate, I know (that) when I type here and am trying to be precise, I tend to edit add extra that's, because my first version of a post started out, in my head, as dialogue with another poster.

It depends on the gender of the speaker. Women tend to enunciate more clearly and add extra words whereas men are more likely to skip words.

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

Just did a Scivener trick on a WIP for some numbers.

Total word count: 10,322.
High frequency words, sorted by use:
the, 573 (5.5%)
a, 291 (2.8%)
to, 275
and, 245
Puck, 193
his, 185
you, 184
of, 166
Ashbury, 162
he, 160
I, 112
in, 108

So what constitutes "too much"? Is it 10% of total words, probably. Or 5% of total words, maybe, maybe not. Depends on the word, really. I use commas like I've got a shotgun loaded with 'em though.

The high use of 'the' and 'a' is probably due to my being American (*gasp*), as we don't go around dropping articles (zero-marking) as much as the Brits.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

It depends on the gender of the speaker. Women tend to enunciate more clearly and add extra words whereas men are more likely to skip words.

Really? Is there a source for that? It'd be fascinating to follow that up.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I only did Wordle but after the names:
looked, back, like, hand, face, time, room and opened.

 

[ratsy]

Another word that writers should not worry about using too much is "said." Some folks seem to struggle to make sure that every line of dialogue uses a different synonym for "said." First of all, there are many times when you don't need a "said" word (even "said" itself) at all. Secondly, "said" is one those words (like "that" and others noted by others) that is pretty much invisible to the reader.

I'm with you on this one. I try to stick with said asked replied..stuff like that. When I see the adverby ones now they stick out like a sore thumb.

 

[barrett1987]

Word Frequency Counter

Showed me this, from 60k words wip.


704 was
684 stranger
645 it
616 t
584 her
579 in
507 wyn
467 she
436 at
417 on
400 him
350 with
343 out
321 be
310 from
304 back
291 for
282 as
279 down
273 had
268 up
268 into
262 what
257 this
257 but
253 that
217 have
207 one
205 man
202 they

Was is an obvious problem

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Over how many thousand words?

 

[barrett1987]

60k words for my sample.

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

616 t

What The--?!