These can be
nasty habits writers overuse in their stories. Some can come to rely on them
without realizing it.
A good way to
remember our repeat offenders is to think of them as a sentence…And it was that
then. Keeping them in mind this way, along with a little practice, will keep
you from relying on them in the future.
After you’re
done creating your work of art, take a few days away from it. Give yourself a
break before going through your self-editing round. Then do a search and find
for these repeat offenders. Doing this will not only save you and your editor
valuable time later, but they will love and remember you for taking the
initiative. The goal is to keep these words to a minimum. Shoot for a number as
close to your page count as you can.
Now obviously,
taking out ‘And’ is not an easy task, especially when nine times out of ten
you’re using it in an action sentence. You need to ask yourself if showing this
action is necessary, then ask yourself if there is another way to show what’s
happening. The same can be said for the rest of our little villains. Some of
these words can removed without altering the sentences in any way; others you
will need to rewrite.
If you utilize
deep point of view, you’ll avoid over using most of these words. There will be
a post about deep point of view later.
Please don’t
forget the occasionally repeated words during this process as well, those words
that stick out at you as you’re reading through the self-editing stage. Examples
of these words are things like gasped, and/or any item word like table or door
in a paragraph, any action a character constantly repeats to the point it’s
distracting, and the use of pronouns, etc. The point is to strive to not repeat
words but to entertain and keep your reader’s attention.
Happy writing!
Stephanie ~Editor~
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