What words are we overusing?

Out of about 8300 words, from an old story, and just listing those that occur more than 50 times:

397 the
235 of
196 to
190 a
180 and
174 her
151 she
132 was
129 i
125 you
98 in
90 dulcifer
85 it
75 that
70 he
69 as
67 with
64 margaret
64 his
57 at
53 had
51 grace
51 for
50 said



The interesting things that, although "Dulcifer" is the main character, I would not be able to tell you who the second and third most important characters are. It seems clear from this that "Margaret" and "Grace" must be.

It might show that I have a problem with "had" as well!
 
704 was <-- cut to 580 and about halfway through my 62k words.so 450ish was in 62k words. Don't know if thats bad or not in a third person pov.
 
Ashleyne. B. Watts said:
I over simplified it. There a lot of other factors to consider, such as education, upbringing and dialect. I've found a couple of sites which talk about the different speech patterns between genders.

Women's Language

Gender and Speech Patterns
Click to expand...

I just wanted to reiterate this for those that may think it is just something thought up by a couple sites. There have been many studies done on this subject and it is surprisingly reliable. I forget which study, I will try to find it later, but at one point someone at a university wrote a program that would examine a piece of text and determine whether it was written by a man or a woman. It was very accurate.
 
At the moment, I seem to be overusing similies. I seem to have the urge to compare everything to something else, usually the most unlikely and peculiar thing I can find. I’m quite wary of it: there’s an episode of Blackadder that overuses the technique, and once you’ve noticed it, it’s really obvious and gets in the way of the story.

I must say that I had a look at the “how genders speak” articles and, while I’ve no idea about the accuracy of the comments about women, I thought that the comments about male speech were pretty exaggerated. I find the idea that I speak in order to “compete for dominance” quite amusing. It makes me sound like an elk in the mating season.
 
"But" and "Sure" always seem rather over represtented and it takes quite a effort to stop.
 
236 the
112 to
111 she
108 and
90 her
87 of
82 a
74 was
67 had
53 in
53 he
40 but

This list was from about 3,700 words, prologue and first chapter of WIP. I only used any with over 40 repetitions. Apart from 'had', do I need to worry about any of the others? I'm very, very novice...
 
The only other one that stands out as a watch for is was as SOMETIMES it's part of a passive sentence. It depends on the context you use it eg (hopefully one of the grammaticians will correct me if I'm wrong)

She was sitting in the grass - can be the continuous was

The file was slid over to her - this one's passive - the file is the subject, not the character, whereas, she took the file as it slid over to her is active - the person is the subject.
 
I really over use connective phrases like 'even so' and 'never-the-less'. I'm talking about the kind of overuse that you don't even need to ctrl F to see- they just kind of scream at you as you skim read!
 
I think I overcompensate when I refuse to use the word "said." I always come up with some kind of substitute, like "declared" or "stated". I still think it sounds fine.
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
Another word that writers should not worry about using too much is "said." Some folks seem to struggle to make sure that every line of dialogue uses a different synonym for "said." First of all, there are many times when you don't need a "said" word (even "said" itself) at all. Secondly, "said" is one those words (like "that" and others noted by others) that is pretty much invisible to the reader.
Click to expand...


I was going to say this and apply it more broadly to almost every word mentioned here. It's only the repeated use of uncommon words that will make readers notice. I remember a particular author used the word "automatically" all the time to describe characters reacting to something, that really stood out.
 
Just cut a lot of 'just' from my 95k. So decided to check the other common words. Was and That crept back up. Time to purge.

848 was
477 that
 
Looking at my "finished" works, there's not a lot I'm worried about. But I know I have a huge problem with weasel words (Just, slightly, "a bit", "a fraction", "almost") and ruthlessly edit them out (though not without whinging and soul searching).

One word of caution: "She knew that he had gone away." vs. "She knew he had gone away." It might seem that you can drop the "that" without consequence, but the first sentence is in iambic tetrameter, and the second isn't. Cadence and rhythm matter, and sometimes more than having an extraneous "that".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Karapace Transposing letters and missing words Grammar & Spelling 8
Elckerlyc MAZE - Intro to a short story - ca 1250 words Critiques 7
Logan Selmes Book Chapter Draft #3: "Row the River Lethe" [a character waking from interstellar sleep upon arrival to a nearby star] - 1495 words Critiques 6
Logan Selmes Book Chapter Draft: "Row the River Lethe" [a character waking from interstellar sleep upon arrival to a nearby star] - 1515 words Critiques 2
Jo Zebedee Overusing words Writing Discussion 8

Similar threads


Back
Top