Overused Words
What are overused words? They are
those words we grab when we don’t want to stop and think through the scene long
enough to choose the exactly correct word. They are the words that leap from
our fingers onto the keyboard. And we all know how we feel about every single
word we write—we love them. We don’t want to delete a single one of them.
But
seriously, overused words will drive an editor to toss your submission in the
slush pile. A discerning reader will roll his/her eyes at the excessive use of
words or phrases. And both may well end up putting your book aside for some
other. And that’s the last thing we want.
Because these
overused words are the first we grasp on to, they tend to weaken your writing. Particularly worrisome are weak verbs
and passive voice. A weak verb is one that tells us what is happening but doesn’t
show us. So, for example, “He walked across the road” Would be better written
as, “He stumbled across the road”. “Walked” would be considered an overused
word.
Another example is use of the
passive voice, where the object of the sentence is not being acted on by the
verb: He was running across the field. A more active way to say this would be: He
raced across the field.
Often,
as writers, we latch onto various words and phrases because we like the sound
of the words, and then we use them over and over. One of my pet phrases is “The
last thing she needed”. While this may be a true statement, using that phrase
more than once or even twice in a book will stand out to the editor and reader
as amateur writing.
Another
set of overused words are see/saw/look/watch/heard/knew/thought. If we are in
deep POV, we already see and hear and know everything our POV character sees
and hears and knows, so we don’t need to tell the reader that the character is
seeing and hearing and knowing. Take for example, “The door opened” is much
more powerful than, “He saw the door open”.
How
to deal with overused words:
Needless to say, the easiest
thing to do is not to write these words and phrases in the first place.
However, that is easier said than done, particularly when you want to simply
get the story down. So, when you start editing, go through your manuscript with
the “find” function to identify every time one of these overused words is used,
then choose another word or phrase to replace it.
Yes, this means you will go
through your manuscript approximately 50 times or more. But your story will be
better, and you will have the chance to look at the various sentences around these
overused words and make changes then.
Words
often overused:
Because we tend to use these
words when we speak, using them in dialog is not so serious as using them in
narrative. You don’t need to completely eliminate these words—just use them
sparingly and only if another word won’t work better. We tend to fall back on
these words when we don’t take the time needed to find the exact right word.
-LY adverbs: in
most cases, you can delete the word and not change the meaning of the sentence
at all.
It
(describe what IT is – makes the sentence more clear, avoids ambiguity, and
gives you the opportunity to tell more about what IT is).
THAT
(if you can take THAT out of the sentence and the sentence still makes sense,
delete it).
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- Shot (as in shot him/her a
glance)
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- With (prepositional
phrases--don't rely on them so much)
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Tools to identify overused words:
This is a free service that shows
not only the overused words but also offers suggestions:
References:
Readers, if you belong to ACFW, you can read all the great writing and editing posts on the ACFW Novel Track Editing blog. There is also the option of subscribing to the novel track and receiving the posts via email. It is a great resource for writers.
Donna
