Word Search Checklist

While working on my latest work in progress I wrote down a list of all my favourite overused words. We all have them. These are the words we love to repeat because it’s easy to throw them in while we’re in a mad rush to get the story down.

They are convenient words, but they weaken our prose. They drag our creativity into the realms of laziness. They are perfectly fine for the first draft. However, once you’re satisfied with the structure of the story, they should be culled. Below is a sample of my list:

Almost, be, but, felt, gasp, got, is, just, little, looked, *ly, nice, only, put, quickly, said, sat, scowl, seemed, some, so, suddenly, that, then, very, walked, was, went, were.

Thank goodness for the Find/Replace feature in Word. What are some of your favourite repeat words?


Thanks to Jasmine at An Author’s Ramblings, my newest follower. She inspired this post with her post about the word, ‘that’. Check it out here.

V is for Very

Very is a word that could very much be eliminated from our vocabulary without a ripple of consequence. If you remove the bolded verys in this post, you’ll see what I mean.

Very is very superficial and makes writing very weak. Rather than thinking of a stronger word, a lazy writer will settle for very to gain emphasis. For example: ‘he ran very fast’ could be changed to ‘he bolted’.

Very is a word I want to wage a war against. So, my advice is, get in the habit of finding the unneeded verys and delete them.

Are there any other words you try to avoid?

Note: This post is part of the A-Z Challenge. To learn more about the challenge click the image on my sidebar.

The Not so Humble Verb

The verb is a powerful tool when a writer knows how to wield it. It is the action word of the sentence. It strives, it yearns, it strikes, it sings. Verbs bring our sentences alive.

So why settle for a bland verb? Why not use the magical verbs, the verbs that conjure strong images in the readers mind and bring a little excitement into our sentences?

Examples:
She ran. (How did she run?) She shot, galloped, jogged, raced.
He walked. (How did he walk?) He ambled, strolled, hiked, meandered.
See how the above examples create a sharper image of the character’s action?

Other things to consider:
Are too many of your verbs passive? I was being taught to play piano.
Do you use too many ‘is’, ‘was’, ‘were’? ‘The coffee cup was on the bench’ – as opposed to, ‘The coffee cup sat on the bench’.

There are so many more examples. I know some people collect verbs as a thesaurus collects synonyms. Do you collect verbs? Do you have some favourite verbs you like to use?

Vocabulary: Expand or Not to Expand?

In one camp sits the belief that it’s not necessary for a writer to expand their vocabulary. It can often lead to stilted writing, it can add an air of pompousness, and it can slow the readers down.

In the other camp sits the belief that it is necessary for a writer to expand their vocabulary. The more words we learn, the more skilled we will be to express ourselves.

In George Orwell’s classic, 1984, the government removed words from the public’s vocabulary in order to remove their ability to think with clarity. “Doubleplusgood” replaced words like “excellent”, “exceptional”, and “brilliant”. “Bad” became “ungood”. This is, of course, an extreme example but it does drive the point home: we need words. So, how far do we go to learn new ones?

My take on the issue: We naturally pick up new words through reading and, as writers, we should be reading a wide range of books anyway. I don’t believe it’s something to stress about. I don’t believe it’s necessary to hunt down new words. When we come back from the hunt with a shiny new gem, we may have a tendency to use the new word for the sake of the new word alone, rather than using it because it’s the right word.

Words interest and fascinate me, but I choose not to use many of the ‘high brow’ ones because it’s just not my writing style. Whenever I throw one in it stands out like a beacon and screams, “Oh, look at me! I’m a big word. Look how smart the author must be to know me!” (exclamation marks ‘n’ all).

Anything that takes away from the story must go. Anything that draws attention to the writer must also go.

If the big words are your thing then they have a place in your prose. A writer friend of mine loves to indulge in lugubrious pontifications. That’s her style and it’s brilliant because she works it well. It’s not my style.

So, what’s your style of writing? Do you love the big words? Do they work for you or do you work for them?