Writers' Workshop

Execution Help: Overuse

Oh boy. Haven't you heard this one a million times before? Maybe in different forms such as:

"You're using too many exclamation marks."

"You tell too much."

"You're over describing."

"Oh my God, does every second word have to be an adverb?"

The key to successful writing is moderation. If you know how to balance out the use of different things in your story, it will have a lovely flow and your reader will be forced to look beyond the words, at the world you've creating.

Overuse is one of the major author sins. When you do it, the reader is pulled out of your story (usually annoyed) and the experience becomes less enjoyable.

So with that in mind, let's treat some common overuse in writing:

1. Punctuation overuse:

Wait, can one actually overuse punctuation? Yes, they can. And it goes beyond grammatically correct.

Example: "Mike! I'm so glad to see you! It's been ages! We should grab dinner sometimes!"

"Sure! Can't wait to hear what you've been up to! Let's go now!"

That sequence, ladies and gentlemen, is grammatically sound. But there is an obvious exclamation mark overuse that makes it seem like your characters are always screaming. It's annoying and a sign of amateur wtiting.

So yes, overuse of

- ! - your character is always screaming or much more excited than a normal person is

- ? - who really talks in questions all the time. Overuse of rhetoric questions is also a turn off for regular narration (even in first person) because it leaves the impression that the author has no idea what's going on

- ... - elipses signify trailing off so they're NEVER a substitute for periods or commas. Makes the writing feel stilted and insecure

- dashes - if you use too many dashes, you obviously have a sentence structure problem.

You can't basically overuse commas or periods, colons or semicolons because that steps into bad punctuation usage, grammatically speaking.

Okay, but what about !!!! Or ???? Or ?!?!?!

Unless you're writing humor, NO!

?! Is a debatable punctuation mark depending on where you come from, but using more than one question mark or exclamation mark for other purposes than satire is perceived as amateur.

2. Adverb overuse

What are adverbs? In writing, they are basically go-to descriptive words that help you paint a picture. They're also bait set up to lead you into a telling trap. They are also referred to as -ly words.

"What a lovely day," she said, joyfully.

"I know," he merrily replied.

Adverbs are very useful in the descriptive process, but overuse is easily noticeable and is the mark of lazy description. Because instead of showing how one does an action, you simply state it (hence the tell vs show trap).

Don't get me wrong. Adverbs are great and you should definitely use them, but in short supply and only to describe things that aren't important enough to warrant a broader description.

How much is too much with Adverbs? Well, it depends on who you're asking, but someone once told me that more than 3 on a page is too much. Now it depends a lot on what kind of story you're writing, but having it every other line or more than once in a paragraph is definitely overuse.