Prisimpad: A Guide to Wattpad, Writing, and Whatever

ON WRITING: Abusing Words

Every writer has that one word, or more, they over use. Discovering your overused word isn't easy. Sometimes it takes somebody pointing it out to figure it out. In my case, it was Pro Writing Aid.

They have this section on their summary called overused words. On this list are common words people tend to over use. When I view this report, it tells me how many instances of these words I used and how many it suggests deleting. They give me these words usually have/had, feel/felt/feeling, it/there, knew/know, just/then, maybe, smell/taste, watch/notice/observe, and was/were. Like with any editor or editing software, it's up to the writer to determine how much of the suggestions to listen to.

Through this feature, I found I overuse "was" a lot. Which is probably a big chunk of the reason I struggle with passive voice. Now the word "was" is something that's hard to eliminate completely, but there are times when it's not needed. Studying those sentences led to me often finding a better way to say my intention. While reading through Freelander on my own is when I discovered my abuse of "actually", "only", and "just". Hell I've noticed my use of just a lot in this guide alone! For this guide, I don't care. I'm giving it to you straight and to do that means to not hold myself back.

Another friend discovered I also use "as" a lot. I'd write sentences like Abby jumped as she talked. Or something like Josh nibbled on his gummy bear as he watched TV. A few of those aren't a big deal, but when I use "as" 20 times in a single paragraph . . . it's a problem.

Sometimes I'll use the word "that" a lot. I started doing a habit that any time I came to the word "that," I read the sentence with it and without it. If it still made sense without it, I deleted it. Pay attention to your writing and find those words you abuse. You will have them. It's kind of inevitable.

The same can also be said for overused descriptions. A reader may very well notice the repetition and it might cause them to put the book down.

I wish I could remember what the phrase was, but when editing Freelander I found myself using the same phrase to describe something three times in the MS. I'd say three times isn't excessive, but it is something to be aware of.

When I was reading the Divergent books, I found Veronica Roth's catch phrase, at least one of them. I forget the exact wording, but whenever Tris was about to faint or was hit in the head, her vision darkened at the edges. I remember the first time I saw it in Divergent I thought it was great. It was a unique way of describing a person fainting. But by the time book three was done, I was bored of it. She used it too much for my liking.

Being bothered by something like that could very well just (there I go with just again) be me, but I still think it's something worth pointing out. If for no other reason than to make you aware of it in your own writing. Pay attention to your word choices and how often you use them. You don't want to abuse your thesaurus trying to replace them, but if you can write a sentence without that word, it might be worth doing it. If nothing else, it'll broaden your vocabulary and that's never a bad thing.