That Word you Hate!

[ZannaPerry]

I'm taking a wee break from writing because I figured the best way to come back to it is to just be free from it for a couple of days. Writers work in all sorts of different ways, but I always write better when I take a break and then come back to it...

With that said, what made me take a break was that I just couldn't get out what I wanted to say. Words that didn't belong and kept getting in my way.

So, this is a topic about all those WORDS you HATE when it comes to writing. Words that just won't go away!

Here is my list of words I can't STAND when writing:

That
Before
Didn't
Could
Would
But - at the beginning of a sentence
And - at the beginning of a sentence
So
Walk
Look
Stood
Quiet
Should!
To
It

I'm sure I could go on and on, but I am having trouble sounding unique when it comes to putting words together. And some words you just can't avoid, but I don't like to have them in every single sentence. My mind feels like mash potatoes right now.........

What is YOUR list of words YOU HATE?

[blacbird]

Rejection.

caw

[HourglassMemory]

You know what helps? Thesaurus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It helps ME a lot. I feel like..oh this word is used so much everywhere!
So I use this.
http://thesaurus.reference.com/

I don't have words I hate, really... I've never thought about it enough to develop some sort of feeling towards them...or read enough, for that matter.

I usually jump to other words if I feel it's overused, which might be the only opinion I have on words.
I don't HATE them lol.

[Roger J Carlson]

Here is my list of words I can't STAND when writing:

That
Before
Didn't
Could
Would
But - at the beginning of a sentence
And - at the beginning of a sentence
So
Walk
Look
Stood
Quiet
Should!
To
It

Actually, I love those words, so I over-use them. Mores the pity. Add to those: is
isn't
am
are
aren't
was
wasn't
were
will
would
won't
has
had
have
be
been
do
don't
did
didn't
does
doesn't
by
being
seem
seems
exist
exists
appears
make
makes
show
shows
occur
occurs
get
got
went
put
some
many
most
that
very
extremely
totally
completely
wholly
utterly
quite
rather
slightly
fairly
somewhat
suddenly
all of a sudden
loose

and not to mention the phrases:

kind of
sort of
the reason for
past history
this is why
end result
it is possible that
the possibility exists
for all intents and purposes
there is a chance that
is able to
has the opportunity to
past memories
future plans
sudden crisis
past history
terrible tragedy
as a matter of fact
quite frankly
all the time
white as a sheet
as soon as possible
at the very least
down in the dumps
in the nick of time
keep your mouth shut
hat in hand
made a run for it
exact same
same exact

[bt_author]

I know what you're getting at my fellow IC lover. In my first draft of just about anything, these are the words I look for to edit out immediately

Then
as

and from your list

That
Before
But - at the beginning of a sentence
And - at the beginning of a sentence
So
To
It

[Scrawler]

I'm going with seem/seemed and very

[ZannaPerry]

Oh, that word...

As...

I really don't like it! :rant:

I do have an thesaurus! Plenty of them....but you can't look in there to find a different word for "to" or "couldn't."

[RRK]

Definitely "that." Also, "a little" and "as if" come up far too often.

[Shadow_Ferret]

I can't, in all good conscience, join this hate fest.

I love words. All words.

If I was you all, I'd be careful. Angry word kharma's gonna get you.

[Chasing the Horizon]

'Actually'
That word annoys me to no end.

[Carmy]

"Gotten" I tend to toss novels when I come across that word.

I hate it, hate it, hate it!

[ZannaPerry]

"And then" also bugs me...

[MerryDay]

She or He.

I am forever changing pronouns to names to pronouns and back again. I hate being repetitive, but you don't have any choice with those!

[TheKnightWhoSaidNi]

I will just speak up to say how much I hate one particular word:

'Bosom.' - I hate this word. It's outdated hillbilly-grandma jargon, like "Mah lawdy, that gurl be looking old enough to have bosoms." I have never used it EXCEPT to illustrate how much I hate it. God willing, I never will.

[Zoombie]

Shoulder, mostly because I can't say it without it coming out as soldiers.

[Williebee]

Honestly.

that and any variation of "I'm not going to lie to you" or "To tell you the truth".
I've found that anyone who says that repeatedly ... isn't.

[Devil Ledbetter]

'Actually'
That word annoys me to no end.Aww, that's my 6-year-old's stutter word. I hear a-a-a-a-actually about 27 times a day.

[Shady Lane]

kind of, sort of, practically, basically

Nothing ever is when I write it. It just sorta is.

[Novelust]

'Vertiginous.' It is the Yellow Dye #5 of words, a thing that shouldn't be found anywhere in nature.

There was a guy in one of my Creative Writing class that used it constantly. I felt as though we did him a disservice by never staging an intervention.

[swvaughn]

I hate the word 'juicy'. Could barely stand to type it just now.

I don't know why. I just do.

Also, I continue my quest in search of a synonym for 'the'. There are far too many 'the's in my manuscripts.

[Shady Lane]

Oh, and I freak out when I have to use the word "it" in a ms. I just hate hate hate hate it. Don't mind it in casual writing (as you can see I've used it a thousand times here....) but it makes my frickin skin craw in my ms. I don't know why.

[mscelina]

Irregardless..particularly since it's not a real word at all.

In my writing--any word that ends with an -ly. I have a serious and/then/but problem as well. I can't eliminate all of them, but I certainly try. I spend most of my rewriting time breaking up compound sentences and backspacing over adverbs.

[Lady Esther]

I hate "really"

I find it in my WIP too much, and I know there's a better word/phrase to use.

[EriRae]

Irregardless..particularly since it's not a real word at all.

I used to work in a collections office next to a guy who used that word all day long with delinquent customers..."Irregardless, your bill was due on the 20th!" Um...doesn't that mean with regard, then, if it's irregardless? Was he trying to be nice to them?

I put in another post that I hate the words "sucks" as in "That sucks!" and "gay" as in "That's so gay." But I used both of those words in the rewrite after I posted that, so I have to take it back. I don't hate those words. Sometimes they work. They make me cringe, but it's what my characters wanted. I think they did it to piss me off...

[Xx|e|ph|e|me|r|al|xX]

Oh, and I freak out when I have to use the word "it" in a ms. I just hate hate hate hate it. Don't mind it in casual writing (as you can see I've used it a thousand times here....) but it makes my frickin skin craw in my ms. I don't know why.

Xx|Shoot, "it"s a pronoun for one of my characters in a future book (unless I can come up with something better; but if I do, that kind of...doesn't work for the story, anyway, because they're trying to make the "it" out to be a "thing"...D:>).

Anyway, my most hated words at the moment are:

Flurry - not like a snow flurry, though. I love that. But "he said in a flurry of emotion" kind of thing. I've never used such verbage before, but it's been stuck in my head and I've had to use it over and over again.
whirling on me in a flurry of attempting to lighten the moodThat's how it got out subconsciously earlier today. I've yet to find the energy to fix it. It sounds so very stupid...that stupid word. XD
I'm thinking "he exclaimed in an attempt to lighten the mood, whirling on me...in a flurry." *dies*

Also, "chuckled", "giggled", and "laughed". "Laughed" implies an outright "LOL"--that's not what they're doing. But "giggled" is too cutesy--they may be immature in some respects, but they're laugh is a tad more mature (most of the time). Chuckled works well. But dang it, they do it so much! They laugh at the stupidest things, and it's always a "chuckle". Oh, bugger. :rant::tongue|xX

[Memoirista]

Unique. I usually remember and use 'singular.'

[lfraser]

Oh, come now, all of the words mentioned above are perfectly good words.:D

Nothing to hate about any of them.

[leenakincaid]

Actually, really, just, very, gazed, stared, glared, smiled, giggled....
ways of describing colors because I do it so often....
I have a thesaurus. I should start using it.

[jasperd]

I tend to repeat "and" too often.

[mscelina]

SUDDENLY. suddenly is my new demon. Why is everything in my WIP so darn sudden????

[gp101]

In my own work, I can't stand and can't seem to avoid "and" and "maybe". Doh... just used it again twice.

In others' works, really hate seeing "indeed". Especially in characters' dialogue. Unless it's a 1940s Brit upperclass sleuth, it just doesn't sound very realistic.

[Willowmound]

I love all words. It's not the word's fault you don't know how to use it.

I do hate some word combinations. "At this time." It's redundant 85% of the time. 14% of the time, "now" would do a much better job.

[The Scip]

The word that I hate the most, because I find it everywhere....

"that"

See it's even in my post!

[jonereb]

Am I the only person who doesn't like "had"? I didn't see it mentioned in this thread. I tried to expunge it from my latest work, but I HAD a hard time.

[mscelina]

had is a tough one. I'm not particularly fond of the word myself; I try to avoid it but sometimes there just isn't any choice. :(

[dub]

Gerunds, gerund phrases, "that", and most adverbs.

[ccarver30]

slightly
nearly
that
said

[Andre_Laurent]

Chuckle.

I hate this word. I grind my teeth every time I see it. And I see it in every damn book I read. I have noticed that men never laugh in a book, they "chuckle".

[Just Me 2021]

"suddenly" is my pet peeve word.

That and "seemed" or "seems".

[Britchik]

I hate the word "the". It appears in at least a third, if not half, of the sentences in my WIP. There must be another word for it somewhere (other than "a", "this", or "that", as they are all quite popular in my writing, too).

[Dancre]

Mine pet peeves are starting my sentences with He/She/They. As is one I forbid myself to use. He did this as he did that. Oi!!! While is another one. While doing this, he did that.

kim

[Dancre]

"suddenly" is my pet peeve word.

That and "seemed" or "seems".

I HATE the word Suddenly. Suddenly a light bobbed in the window.

kim

[jonereb]

...and most adverbs.

Interestingly enough, The Secret Garden is loaded with adverbs. Did something change over the years to cause adverbs to lose favor?

[MelodyO]

My whole life, I never noticed adverbs. Read them without blinking, used them in my writing, whatever. Then I came to AW. All it took was one person pointing out how they can weaken a sentence (especially when used as dialogue tags), and next thing you know....I hate them. My eye searches them out on the page, so I can loathe them sooner. Hee. What have you done to me, AW?!? ::shakes fist at sky::

[Marion]

All of the above and 'with that' - if I read that I cringe. (Danielle Steele is bad for doing that) So, with that I'll sign off for now. Bye.

[Red Robin]

Some of you have truly odd dislikes. 'That'? 'It'? Whhhaaaaa? This could serve as the seed of a comedy sketch.....

But anyway, I hate when strong verbs are written as weak verbs, that is, dived rather than dove, creeped rather than crept, weeped rather than wept, and so on... we would, could, and should write these properly!

And - at the beginning of a sentence
Yes, that's annoying.

[necia phoenix]

I try to avoid words ending in 'ly'. I will sit for hours trying to come up with an alternative.
'As' is another one that shows up way too much in my writing.

'Its' and 'It's'. I can never seem to keep the grammar rules strait so I go out of my way to avoid either one.


I'm sure there are more.

[threedogpeople]

Words like "paradigm", "global" or "WMD", especially when they become a corporate double speak.

Corporate America gets stuck in ruts overusing words. A few years ago, most changes in strategy suddenly became a complete paradigm shift, corporate paradigm, individual paradigm, third quarter paradigm. Then there was the phase when everything was referred to as global: global vision, global mission, global goals, global ideas, etc.

WMD - enough said.

[maddythemad]

Actually, what I hate much more than all those little words combined is when someone either

A) Uses big words that they clearly haven't the foggiest notion of what they mean (one reason that I virtually never use a thesaurus)

or

B) Repeats big words. It sounds so awkward. Like, if you say, "Tom had a idiosyncratic sense of humor, and his friends rarely got his jokes, which often consisted of lame puns combined with a penchant to mock everyone around him. Recently he had sarcastically told Sally that he liked her new hairstyle-- a big mound of hair idiosyncratically piled on top of her head-- and she had..." Blah, blah, blah, you get the point. Even words smaller than "idiosyncratic" can sound weird if you repeat them. There's this one place in Harry Potter 6 where Dumbledore uses "in due course" like twice on a page, and that has always bugged me sooo much.

[jonereb]

Corporate America gets stuck in ruts overusing words. A few years ago, most changes in strategy suddenly became a complete paradigm shift, corporate paradigm, individual paradigm, third quarter paradigm. Then there was the phase when everything was referred to as global: global vision, global mission, global goals, global ideas, etc.

"Synergy" was another corporate word that I heard a lot a few years ago.

[NeuroFizz]

FORM

As in, "Please forgive the use of this form letter..."

[JoNightshade]

I don't like smarmy, careen, and proactive. I refuse to use any of those words.

[Danger Jane]

Oh, that word...

As...

I really don't like it! :rant:

I do have an thesaurus! Plenty of them....but you can't look in there to find a different word for "to" or "couldn't."

Those words tend to be the transparent ones--the ones the reader doesn't really notice.

Think of dialogue tags. When you have to use one, it's best to just use "said". Why? Because it's a word the reader is going to skim right over to get to the meaty stuff, the dialogue itself, and it gets the job done: it lets the reader know who's talking. There's nothing wrong with using a "plain" word like to or couldn't because it's just a getting-the-job-done word.

As for it's and its:

It's is a contraction of "it is". Its is possessive.

"The party? It's at seven tomorrow night."

versus

"The rabid dog snarled and yellow foam dripped from its mouth."

[Diane]

All of these are excellent words to seek out and make justify their existence. Because they can weaken the writing.

On a different tangent, I hate the word "sluice." I'd never even noticed the word before I read on a mystery newsgroup that every mystery uses the word "sluice," usually in regards to rain. After that, nearly every damn book I picked up had rain sluicing somewhere or other. I will never be able to use because it of this, and reading it takes me out of the story immediately.

[Devil Ledbetter]

Diva, uber, extreme, and any other word repeated endlessly by the pop culture machine.

[scarletpeaches]

Basically
Actually

They're just effing annoying.

Well and so when used to start off a line of dialogue. I do that too much.

All qualifiers. If something is nearly, almost, quite, just, sort of or kinda...cut out the qualifier or use a stronger noun.

[lfraser]

Hm. Maybe there ARE some words I hate. Let's see...

I
we
they
and
that
you
she
he
it
on
by


Man, those words are overused.

[Dhewco]

Okay,

I hate the word 'hate', and I don't believe in limiting myself by eliminating words for the simple reason that some people overuse them. I take everything on a case by case basis. Sometimes an -ly word fits. I would say 'perfectly' but I feel the word is unnecessary.

David

[ZannaPerry]

for dialogue tags I don't think you have much of a choice and not sound cheesy. Said is a basic word you're going to have to use more than once. One of the words you can't avoid.

[Tia Nevitt]

Gerunds. I think most people overuse them. Especially when they start a sentence, like this:

Running in the park, he tripped and fell.

The word "while" is missing in the beginning. But so many writers make this mistake, including published writers, that it's almost no longer a mistake. However, I notice it every time I encounter it.

I've discovered that gerunds weaken my writing. In the right place, used sparingly, they can be effective. But I try to use them rarely, like passive voice.

[Mad Queen]

I'm developing an extreme and irrational hate for the verb 'step'. In fiction no one walks or goes somewhere, they step to some place, step into the room, step off the boat, step through the door, step forward, step into the light, step down the hall, step around something... I hate it.

[GirlWithPoisonPen]

I can't join the hate. All words have their uses, but some can be crutches.

I do, however, highly recommend the Oxford American Thesaurus. It's word junkie nirvana.

[Gynn]

I know how you feel. I often get caught in:

Walked
Moved
Went

Looked
Glanced
Stared

Smiled
Grinned
Smirked

Laughed
Chuckled
Giggled

One on hand, they barely get the job done, but on the other, I don't want to start doing this: "Aric gazed at the chair, chortled, then traipsed over."

[2Wheels]

No?

How about "Aric ogled the chair, guffawed, then stomped over"?

I hate:
Suddenly (just occasionally it DOES actually have a place).
Apparently
Seemed
Appeared
That
As

[Jerry B. Flory]

Got. I don't even consider it a word.
I've got. That's even worse.
Started. Unless used to describe a car or machinery.
Had had. Have to be careful with that one. Harry Potter books are heavy and can be considered a lethal weapon when hurled across the room.

[Mad Queen]

I've got. That's even worse.
Then never go to England. My grammar says: 'The present tense form of have with got used for possession is more than twice as frequent in spoken BrE as in AmE.'

(I've taken one 'got' out of my MS because of you.)

[The Lonely One]

As for irregardless...

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless

I don't see a purpose of it, however; might as well say regardless.


I think using "now" in past tense, outside of dialog, is awkward. Yet it is continually used loosely in past tense prose.

[Mad Queen]

irregardless should be punishable by death, but I also dislike regardless and including.

[Willowmound]

"Pet peeve." Why the puck do all your peeves have to be pets? What happened with just having a peeve? Huh?

*mightyangry*

[Willowmound]

Any form of "to state". Just have your characters say things, okay?

[perfectisafault]

Being verbs bother me a lot. As does:
completely
absolutely
incredibly
and any other words like that

[Kaylee]

retarded--Having a child with special needs, I hate that word used protaining to her.

[TnD]

Adverbs as a whole.

lol, rotflmao, gay, as in : that's so gay.

There are others, but most of the ones that make my teeth go crooked have already been listed.

[Severian]

Ever seen one of those posters with all the "words" George Bush has made up over the years?

I hate those words.

[C.H. Valentino]

"This" and "that".

Please god, for the love all things holy, if you use "this" or "that" READ THE DAMN SENTENCE OUT LOUD!!!!!

[RunawayScribe]

'That.' I have ridiculous issues with the word 'that.' It has its place, and I do use it when it's necessary, but when I can edit it out, I do. It bulks up sentences, slows me down, and, in most cases, lends the piece an awkward, bumbling feel. I can't stand it.

[TTCleveland]

I think this thread deserves a bump.

Also, that is the word I hate: "bump"

[Diamond Lil]

I'm developing an extreme and irrational hate for the verb 'step'. In fiction no one walks or goes somewhere, they step to some place, step into the room, step off the boat, step through the door, step forward, step into the light, step down the hall, step around something... I hate it.

Heh, now I have the Joe Jackson song "Steppin' Out" in my head.

Words I don't like and work on revising/weeding out:

basically, actually, just

chuckled, laughed, smiled

And a phrase I see too often in romances and popular fiction: "She padded down the hall in bare feet." That word seems odd to me. I walk in barefeet, sometimes tip toe, but I don't "pad."

[Charlie Horse]

Purchase. As in "he struggled on the sheer rock face before his feet gained purchase."

I mean who the heck talks like that. The thing of it is, I've seen it used by several authors that I greatly respect. Perhaps it's a British thing, but to me it just sounds weird.

[Chantal89]

I hate : to go to... no matter what, I'm always trying to think of something else to replace those 3 words