My List of Annoying Words

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Published by: kd on 27th Feb 2010 | View all blogs by kd

Revising this manuscript has been a full time affair for the last few weeks. Here are the stats:

Original word count: 129,000
Current word count: 107,000
Original page count: 360
Current page count: 397

How did the word count go down and the page count go up? I eliminated the first three chapters and about three thousand words of uselessness througout the manuscript. I also eliminated many of the dialogue tags and repositioned dialogue so that conversations would flow smoothly, which takes up space, hense the 397 page count.

I am now down to my 'List of Annoying Words' that I am plugging into my search box one by one to try and eliminate or change and, although, this is a personal thing, I thought writers who love to overwrite (like myself) might find it useful.

'Past'- why? because I seem to interchange 'passed' and 'past' on whim.

'Answered'- to replace or eliminated he/she 'answered' where possible

‘seemed’- because sometimes things don’t ‘seem’ that way, they are that way

‘Sudden’- because any phrase that starts with ‘Suddenly’ isn’t so sudden

‘But’- I use this to start phrases all the time so I’m trying to change it where possible and evit run on’s in certain cases

‘Just then’- same reason as ‘suddenly’-plus, phrases are stronger when we’re thrown into the action

Anything ending in ‘Y’- this is mostly for my unnecessary adjectives

‘Sort’- It’s not a ‘sort’ of rock. It is a rock.

‘Somewhat’- again. Like being ‘somewhat’ pregnant. You either are, or you aren’t.

‘And’- to limit my adjectives. ‘It was large and magnificent’- I need to pick one. And to evit run on’s once again.

‘Found’- she found herself feeling. He found himself thinking. They found themselves standing. Why is everyone always ‘finding themselves’? ugh!

‘Said’- ‘Yes’ she said. ‘Why?’ he said. ‘Because.’ He said. Or ‘Yes.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because?’

‘Felt’- ‘She felt a rumbling in her stomach’ becomes ‘Her stomach rumbled.’

‘Begin’

‘Began’- ‘The ground began to shift. They were beginning to get frightened.’ Becomes ‘The ground shifted under their feet. They cried out, frightened.

‘Herself’- again. ‘asked herself’ ‘told herself’ ‘thought to herself’ ‘HATED herself!’

‘Themselves’- same thing

‘Could be seen’ – ‘The boys could be seen standing by the water.’ Becomes ‘The boys stood by the water.’

These are all words that I picked up on over and over again througout my manuscript and they drove me nuts. So I hope compiling this list might help others who make the same mistakes as me. All the time.

Katie:)

Comments

19 Comments

by Caducean Whisks 2 years ago

This made me smile, Katie. Many of your pet hates are mine too, in particular "seemed" - it was or it wasn't, and "begin/start" - it makes the pace even slower - if you're on the cusp of something happening, then nothing's happening. You've also pinpointed a lot of passive phrases and turned them into actives, which is much cleaner, more direct - nicer. There's nothing like a good edit, to make you squirm, is there? And once you're sensitised to certain words, they leap out at you all the time. I used to be guilty of faffy words like "of course" and "actually" and "in fact" - now I try not to write them in the first place although they still creep into the first draft.
Other pet hates (which I DON'T use) are "obviously" - if it's obvious, it doesn't need saying, except for irony or sarcasm.
Also "basically" sets my teeth on edge - it's such a condescending word. I want to scream back - "No! Don't dumb down for me - I'm bright - give me the complicated version!"
Agree about "suddenly" and "but" at the start of sentences; I'm a big fan of semi-colons, these days - they make for a much smoother reading experience.
Good for you, for giving your manuscript a good bashing (bashing your manuscript?) - ah, that's another one - I try to use strong verbs wherever possible - like the example you cited - "she felt a rumbling in her stomach" vs "her stomach rumbled".
I also keep stats like that. Excellent post!
by John Taylor 2 years ago

Another smiling person with the same bad habits – especially FELT and SEEMED. HERSELF, I've trained MYSELF away from, BUT I can't always avoid it. SUDDENLY, I'm getting paranoid. Must do another search! Typing 'l-y-space' into 'find' finds all those -ly words, but it's a slow process!

A useful list, Katie, thank you. My word count and page count also seem to be independent of each other. One of my narrators has short sentences, short paragraphs and many spaces, whilst the other goes in for long monologues. Changing the balance between the voices can change the page count significantly. Incidentally, my subsequent edits almost invariably grow, partly because I tend to under-write, and partly because I know what Amy means when she says things, but it's trial and error whether anyone else does. I begin with her voice as it would be, and end up with something that is (hopefully) understandable!
by kd 2 years ago

Thanks john & CW - when I saw how the page count had jumped, I looked back at the narrative and realised I made the mistake of dividing action and dialogue where it could have very easily stayed together! Ugh. I went a little trigger happy with the enter key so now I have to go back and fix that.

'ly' is a good idea, hadn't thought of that. I notice, though, that when I type in 'said' it's usually followed by thoughtfully, angrily, irritably, happily...bla bla bla blah! lol. So that usually gets removed with the 'said'- thankfully..:)=
by Weens 2 years ago

Thanks kd, this is a really useful list, and using the find function makes the editing of them that little bit easier. My other bug bear is starting a sentence with Well. I was amazed at how many times I do that. I shall make a note of these to help with my own editing. Thanks again.
by Rebecca Holmes 2 years ago

I'm guilty of so many of these - and I overwrite lots. I don't mind so much on a first draft because the idea of that first draft is to get through it somehow. If we didn't give ourselves permission to make mistakes, we'd probably never finish anything. As you've shown, the trick is to hunt them down ruthlessly on editing.
Thanks for the reminder. It's given me some useful pointers for finding where I've slipped up.
Good luck with the revisions. It would be interesting to know how much the list of annoying words affects the word count!
by Tony 2 years ago

Useful thread, Katie. Don't forget when you've searched for all the l-y-spaces you still have to go through it all again with l-y-, and then again with l-y-. There could even be some l-y-; and even l-y-!
(Suddenly it seems you begin to find yourself feeling your past editing is still somewhat incomplete. But just then - you think positively and constructively - this could be seen as sort of good, really.) ;-)
by Patrick 2 years ago

This made me laugh. They are all really annoying words that I hate too! Well done on writing a good length manuscript too-it's something I'm struggling with!
by Malcolm 2 years ago

Excellent post Katie. I am guilty of all of those and, no doubt, a few more besides (except passed and past; I have that one licked...I think). At work I write numerous reports (with flare and style of course) however, I am the king of "however" and it tends to rear its head all too often. However enough of however.
by kd 2 years ago

I'm glad you guys found this useful. I lost patience yesterday while looking up 'But'. There's just so many that I start to zone out while waiting to come upon one that starts a sentence or attatches huges masses of description. Thanks Patrick - the only hard part of having a long manuscript is the time it takes to go through all the words over and over and over again. 'Tis a long road ahead.

Tony- LOL. Trop fort:)

Katie
by Spangles 2 years ago

This is ringing a cacophony of bells, Katie. I'm currently going through the first half of my manuscript and am amazed at some of the horrors I've unearthed. Many of them belong in your list. And I seem to get all my characters to begin each bit of dialogue with 'Oh,' for some reason.
by kd 2 years ago

'Oh'. spangles:):) I've just found another one that makes me grate my teeth- I'm sure most people wouldn't have this problem but- My characters never 'climb' or 'clamor' or even 'go up'. They mount. 'She mounted the stairs.' 'They mounted through the woods.' 'He mounted the podium.'. Why? God only knows. I feel like I'm writing the book version of 'Cliffhanger'.
by Inktrailer 2 years ago

What a great thread, I can't wait to finish mine and then find the horrors in it. Very useful stuff, thanks:-)
by Spangles 2 years ago

Isn't it weird how that happens? I was telling my husband the other day about a piece I'd seen that described a character as 'slumbering', and asking why the author couldn't have stuck to 'sleeping'. And then what did I discover yesterday in my own novel? 'It wasn't exactly conducive to restful slumber.' As far as I know, it was the first time I'd ever used the word, as I think it's far too twee for normal use.

My characters don't mount the stairs but they seem unable to get out of a chair in the normal way. They 'leap' every bloody time. They must be exhausted!
by SecretSpi 2 years ago

This is brilliant and very fitting at the moment as I am busy editing. I don't use "mount", mainly as my smutty mind always sniggers at that one. But a lot of "emerging" seems to go on my book, which has to stop! I have also set myself the challenge of eliminating "sneered" from the entire story - quite difficult as my villain is an upper-class officer complete with the perfect sneering moustache!
by Tony 2 years ago

Katie, if you need to find "but" at the start of a sentence put ". But" into your search box (without the quotes, of course). you might have to do another quick trawl through with "? But" and "! But", thought there are unlikely to be many of them.
by kd 2 years ago

Thanks for the tip Tony! Spangles. lol- I know. Another thing my characters do are 'shoot' or 'throw' looks. 'He shot her a curious glance 'She threw him a dark look right back.' Someone's going to get hurt eventually.

SecretSpi, you could at least leave in one 'sneere' for ol' times sake:)
by Spangles 2 years ago

I can hear the bullets from here!

I've now discovered that my characters are continually checking their watches. That's because I do, too, but they will have to stop.
by Cazza 2 years ago

Oh Dear - alarm bells are ringing with me too. My first manuscript was an emotional mine-field and the main character kept throwing up! She was always 'sick to her stomach' or the very thought of something made her want to vomit, or she drank too much alcohol on an empty stomach which she threw back up on a regular basis. When I asked a friend to read the first draft she pointed it out to me and I started to notice just how 'sicky' a character she was. Sometimes you just can't see the wood for the trees.

I use 'really' far too often too. I make a concious effort not to because it really, really gets on my nerves :o)
by claraw 2 years ago

Wow, I actually have a problem with all these words too, specially the self variations! Lovely thread, trully! I´m also revising, oh boy...honestly, I do believe that is harder then writting to me!
Keep the great work! =D