Words you overuse constantly?

Ohh yeah. I have a list of them I do a check for when I start editing. I'm amazed at how often I slip into bad habits with them.

Just, really, only, little, pretty, kind of, actually, all used in the qualification sense. They're terrible, but I make it my practice not to stress about them too much in the first draft, and do search and destroy of them while editing.

I abuse adverbs and softening words. "Briefly," "almost," "nearly," "as if," "somewhat"--they're things that seem poetic when I'm writing, even though they just make everything weaker.

I also have a maddening habit of using a construction like "It was [adjective,] [synonym for first adjective,] [maybe even another synonym!]" It seems to be my default way of writing in emphasis, except I overdo it horribly and end up editing out most of them.

Hmm, let's see:
Just, that, should, could, might, soon, now, then

Honestly lately my first draft sentences are just too wordy. I suppose it's me just trying to explain what I mean in a general way, because then I look for phrases or stronger verbs that do the job in less words.

Several, but "that" stands out. I can eliminate it at least eighty percent of the time.

summontherats said:

I abuse adverbs and softening words. "Briefly," "almost," "nearly," "as if," "somewhat"--they're things that seem poetic when I'm writing, even though they just make everything weaker.

I also have a maddening habit of using a construction like "It was [adjective,] [synonym for first adjective,] [maybe even another synonym!]" It seems to be my default way of writing in emphasis, except I overdo it horribly and end up editing out most of them.

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I didn't know using 'as if' is a bad thing. I tend to use it when my MC guesses the reasoning of other characters. Like, "it was as if he wanted her to be angry." Can the 'as if' be skipped without being considered head hopping?

I overuse look and glance, and probably a bunch of other words I can't remember off the top of my head.

I find I overuse certain prepositional phrases to create narrative transitions, like 'with that, he...[did something else]' or 'At home, he blah blah...'

And in dialogue tags, there's a lot of 'he shot back' instead of just replied (maybe because everyone in my novel is always carping at each other, lol). And a beta recently mentioned that my characters do a lot of freezing, especially in response to an unexpected development, lol. It's a bit like a cheat, I guess, giving me a beat to send the character's reaction in a different direction.

Another thing I overuse is the position of the sun/moon to time stamp scenes. I try to do it in inventive ways (by using Egyptian mythology of Ra's boat sailing across the sky, for instance) but I still feel like I start way too many scenes the same way.

phantasy said:

I didn't know using 'as if' is a bad thing. I tend to use it when my MC guesses the reasoning of other characters. Like, "it was as if he wanted her to be angry." Can the 'as if' be skipped without being considered head hopping?

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Yeah, I should probably nix that from my list, since it's not really a "bad phrase" that you can mass remove. But usually (but not always) it can be replaced with like. It also has a tiny hint of loftiness to it, like using "as well as" instead of "and."

"And" is my real problem. I did look at a book published by a big house publisher and they used "and" as much as I did, but still I try to watch it. I used to use "but" to much until my wife pointed it out. I hadn't noticed until then. There are other words that I use a lot, but they are spread out so I don't know if that is a problem or not.

I use the word "just" way too much. It's really nice to see that other people struggle with this as well.

I'm finding my main character goes through the same series of physical reactions again and again too. Her heart races and stomach twists so much that she should probably have that looked at.

Devil Ledbetter said:

Just, really, only, little, pretty, kind of, actually, all used in the qualification sense. They're terrible, but I make it my practice not to stress about them too much in the first draft, and do search and destroy of them while editing.

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This. Thisthisthis. I'm exactly the same.

phantasy said:

I didn't know using 'as if' is a bad thing. I tend to use it when my MC guesses the reasoning of other characters. Like, "it was as if he wanted her to be angry." Can the 'as if' be skipped without being considered head hopping?

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"As if" isn't bad on its own, but anything is bad if you overuse it. It doesn't take very many cases of "as if" before it starts jumping off the page at the reader.

Yep, I have an unfortunately long list of these words to check for. "Long" is one of them, actually.

Brian

"Though" is one I overuse all the time. In speech and in writing. I blame my dad for that, and his lyrical half-Irish, half-Geordie accent. I mimic so many of his speech patterns and he overuses it too.

Also, 'somehow', 'some kind of', 'a bit', 'a little bit'. I have to go through every draft to eliminate them.

"But", "just", and "and." I can't seem to write a complete paragraph without using those three.

Yep, me, too. In addition to the usual that, just, really, some (which I always try to kill), look, glance, and eyes, I also need to watch out for walked over and tried.

Somewhere in computer-space, there's whole piles of these words crying softly and needing counseling.

CathleenT said:

walked over

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Yep, I finally removed that crutch from my writing vocabulary a few years ago, but before then, I had people walking all over the place!

Brian

I have to resist "wonders"

Actually.

I hate that word.

despondently and dejectedly...... Well, not so much in the current stories I'm writing, but in my last major one I had waaaaay too many and had to find ways to get rid of most of them.

I also have a tendency to overuse semicolons; I love them so much.

I've been using "just" more often than the letter e.

That's one of the really nice things about something like yWrite. It (and I assume Scrivener and other packages) will tally word usage for you, letting you see just how often you actually use a particular word. It's really a pretty handy little function.....

BrianJamesFreeman said:

Yep, I finally removed that crutch from my writing vocabulary a few years ago, but before then, I had people walking all over the place!

Brian

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Oh damn, I overuse walking too. Need to fix that when I get home!