Overused Words
As many of you know, I’m on the downhill slide to the finish of my novel writing course. This course has been invaluable to me as I’m working hard on a middle-grade novel. It has given me the motivation to stick with the story-telling and get this idea down on paper.
Today as I was tightening up yet another scene in said novel, I wrote the word “spot.” Now that may not seem like a big deal to you, but suddenly I had this overwhelming sense that I had used the word before in my draft. Not only had I used it – I done so 100 times! Ok, maybe that number is exaggerated a bit, it was more like 16. Still, it was enough to send me on a hunt through my draft.
I know you may have thought I was going to discuss overused words in our lexicon – words such as like actually, literally, very, and good. Crud, now I need to search my draft for those words. I was more focused on how these overused words impacted my novel.
Many resources are available online to guide you to a list of overused words. Here are just a few.
- Overused words – Mt. San Jacinto College
- 100 overused words, 600 alternatives – Vocabulary Ninja
I think it’s important to consider word choice. A great way to find these little gems is to read your story out loud to yourself or another person. Reading my story out loud has helped me find words that I’ve reused that are not necessary to the story or have valid alternatives that I can use. It has also helped me fix awkward paragraphs that may “look” ok, but when you read them out loud suddenly they sound glaringly wrong.
One other piece of advice. Don’t be afraid to simplify your writing. Sometimes we don’t need the extra adjectives. We can trust our readers to figure out what’s happening from the dialogue between the characters. Plus – you don’t want to end up in a video making fun of the adjective you used.
“Spot” – who knew? Off to check out what other words I’ve reused.
