One word that bothers me is 'snorted'. Seriously, wth, why are characters constantly snorting in books when people in real life almost never do???
I sometimes wish there was a word to replace it. A word that means you've just made a 'pssh' like-whatever sound. Scoff might work, but it sounds crazy bratty, imo.
I had couple of characters who would go "heh" or "huh" occasionally, but some critting partners really hated that for reasons I'm not clear about. People I know do say "heh," or "huh" sometimes.
So I replaced it with snorted, and they seemed to like that better. Usually when my characters snort, though, it's because they're trying to hold in laughter.
I think one problem is regional/personal differences in what is meant by some expressions.
When a horse snorts, it's blowing air forcefully through its nose. People don't tend to do that, unless they're laughing really hard (or trying to hold laughter in). But some people mean that chuffing or huffing sound people sometimes make when they disapprove of something.
One critting buddy (who is from the Caribbean) refers to something called tooth sucking in his writing. To me, tooth sucking is what you do when you stick your tongue in front or just behind your teeth and sort of lick them off inside your mouth when you're mulling something over, but his characters (usually elderly women) do it when they want to show disapproval.
"Kids these days. No respect!" She sucked her teeth at him.
Turns out he means a sort of "tssst" or tongue clicking sound. Sort of similar to when someone out here would go "chuh!" or "Huh!" or even "Tsk!" but a little different too. It's kind of culture specific.
