So, I am going through Mortal Obligation and laughing to myself. The wonderful, amazing, and superb editor Heather Darenberg has brought to my attention that I over use the word odd. Which is a really odd word to over use, you know? Maybe I am just the odd writer that can't get enough of the word odd.. Am I the only author that overuses a word? Am I really that odd? Does it make me a bad writer? Hopefully I don't slip it into odd places in conversation as well! How irritating would that be for the people I am talking to! I'm sure that once I am out of earshot they refer to me as that odd writer that has a weird penchant for using odd words. Wouldn't that annoy anyone?
So, I have decided to list some useful synonyms for future reference.
Unusual
abnormal
bizarre
curious
different
eccentric
random
erratic
peculiar
irregular
strange
deviant
aberrant
chance
flaky
occasional
accidental
spare
psycho
fortuitous
atypical
Are there any words that any of you overuse? I'd love to hear that I am not alone in giving one word a little too much attention. By the way... ODD! ;)
Agathokakological, diffuse, lordotic, strabismic, flitch, and donnybrook.
ReplyDeleteI over use Dispite....Your are right that is odd!!!
ReplyDeleteI've edited out a ton of extra 'that' in my first draft. I could make a novel from the words I've done away with lol. Great post Nichole.
ReplyDelete"Just" over and over in my manuscripts. And I didn't think you could overuse the words "aberrant" and "fortuitous." Great reminder to watch for this stuff!
ReplyDeleteNot a single word, but a phrase. My characters nod too much (but hey, that's what we really do!) and they also take deep breaths, and for a moment, I was writing 'for a moment' a lot!
ReplyDeleteUseful and fun post! I reccommend wordle.net for finding out what words you overuse if you are not already familiar with it. :)
ReplyDeleteI discovered I used "just" too much in a recent novel. There were just too many just people and things that just happened.
Nick, dear, your overused words surpass my vocabulary skills. ;) I had to google some of those...
ReplyDeleteAnd I hadn't heard of wordle.net! Thanks for the tip howalt :)
I'm there with "just" and the nodding, deep breaths and such. I did a post a while back on searching for adverbs (ending in -ly)and it was enlightening. Love the check of the thesaurus. http://fateandfaith-julee.blogspot.com/2011/04/follow-friday-and-it-just-keeps-getting.html
ReplyDelete