Overused Words to Avoid

[DanDraper]

When I started using an editor, he informed me of an overused word I used that he sees as a big mistake for most writers, and the word was 'THAT'
In the first story I asked him to review he showed me I used the word that almost a hundred times throughout the story.
I went through a search of the word and saw how not only was it excessive, but unnecessary in most areas.
I brought that number down to just over thirty, only keeping it areas where it was necessary to use.
Since then, every time I write a finish writing a story, I go back to search that overused word and a few others I learned about to see how I can work around it. I think it made me better writer of it because I became less reliant on those overused words and made me a more creative.

What are some other overused words that you notice that authors need to be aware of? If you can, please explain why.
I think a lot of writers here would benefit from this.

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[Zeb_Carter]

Really. No, the word REALLY. Grammarly is always telling me I use it too much.

 

[NotWise]

"That" was pointed out to me in one of my first stories. It's rarely necessary and can often be removed without changing the meaning of a sentence.

Last year, a beta-reader told me I was overusing "push," mostly in sex scenes. I'm finding it harder to replace.

 

[NotWise]

Really. No, the word REALLY. Grammarly is always telling me I use it too much.

I use "really" in dialog quite a bit: "really good," "really nice," and so on. After its last update LibreOffice's Language Tool started pointing those out. It suggests stronger wording.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

'that' is a word that I remove a dozen times when I start editing my first stream-of-thumbs draft.
The one that I keep overusing and that I remove fifty times.over the next few iterations is 'and'. Most of my long rambling sentences turn into multiple short ones.

 

[ElectricBlue]

'and then' was a bad habit for a while until I caught it. Now it's one of several "find and replace" word pairs that I always scrub. And 'just'.

I use worditout all the time - the site creates word clouds with the top 100 words (excluding the essential construction words). Very handy. Here's an example from my latest 1500 words:

https://worditout.com/word-cloud/4712686/private/2ec0af6523b1b39646ec195e3d625137

 

[AlinaX]

I get hyperconscious about any word repetition, but it's difficult to avoid.

Some words that I struggle to avoid overusing: feels, seems, cried, thrust, said, ...

Another thing to avoid is 'began to ...', 'started to ...'

ETA: lol, yes, 'and then'. I don't use it often, but every time I do use it, I'm like, "Really?"

ETA2: lol @ my word cloud; also, two more words: pleasure, hard, ...

 

[GinnyPPC]

That, Really, and Just

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm guilty of all overusing all of the above: that, really, started to, etc. They're often filler words, or qualifiers.

I think it's perfectly OK to use them in dialogue because they can help establish a character's peculiar speech mannerisms.

I try to catch this sort of thing. One of the upsides is that if you edit yourself you sometimes force yourself to find a new word to use in place of the overused one. Doing so makes your prose more interesting.

 

[oggbashan]

Too many 'Buts' - Not Butts, but 'but'.

I use it too often to create complex sentences. removing a few 'buts' shortens the sentences.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Check out Diana Urban's 43 Words You Should Cut From Your Writing Immediately https://dianaurban.com/words-you-should-cut-from-your-writing-immediately

 

[SimonDoom]

Check out Diana Urban's 43 Words You Should Cut From Your Writing Immediately https://dianaurban.com/words-you-should-cut-from-your-writing-immediately

Just read it. It's all excellent advice, except the bit about getting rid of dialogue tags. I disagree with that advice. The better rule, IMO, is to mix it up, use them where appropriate, and ditch them when you don't need them. Variety, rather than inflexible rules, is what makes the prose more readable.

 

[PoisonPen33]

"After a moment"
"But"
"And Then"
"Sighed"
"Boobs"

 

[JGittes]

Check out Diana Urban's 43 Words You Should Cut From Your Writing Immediately https://dianaurban.com/words-you-should-cut-from-your-writing-immediately

I have a checklist of these words. After I've done my first Grammarly run (usually my third full edit after I think I've finished something), I use Word 'find' to locate every instance on my checklist. I eliminate the word ninety percent of the time, rewrite the sentence using something better five percent and the remaining uses are consciously considered and employed. There are a couple of other words I've found I repeat, (somehow and sometime) and have added those to my checklist.

Over time I've found I don't use these words as much in my initial drafts, but the checklists let me not worry. I force myself to keep writing knowing Grammarly and my checklists will catch most of these errors. The downside is graphic evidence of how totally garbage my first drafts are.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

'Lawyer', 'accountant', 'tax', 'taxes', 'city council'. My blood pressure rises every time I read one of those.

Oh, wait...

I do like the list. Thanks.

 

[shivadancer]

I sometimes run my stuff through the hemingway editor to help strip some of that out.

 

[Nellymcboatface]

I'm glad I'm not the only one to suffer all of the above...

The one that bugs me now is the overuse of "Super" on TV and adverts..

"I'm super excited...." etc...

Guilty as charged M'lord..

Nelly

 

[TadOverdon]

Too many.

"Feels" or "felt" is definitely one for me. "Realized," as well.

Slide/slid, slip, now, moment - I'm finding that I overuse "moment" more than just about any other word. That may be an idiosyncracy.

Trying to expunge "suddenly" from my vocab but I fear I'm compensating too often with "abruptly" - although, on the other hand, perhaps I'm discovering that "abrupt" was the word I really wanted a lot of the time when I used "sudden."

I've decided that "cock" is an invisible word in porn, like "said." Put the porn synonym book away.

 

[MiddleAgedMan]

Said... This is one of my (many) pet peeves. Way too many stories, even from respected, published authors use said too often.

Dialogue becomes tiring if every sentence ends or starts with he said/she said.

 

[gordo12]

Check out Diana Urban's 43 Words You Should Cut From Your Writing Immediately https://dianaurban.com/words-you-should-cut-from-your-writing-immediately

Almost every word I watch out for was on that list. Good advice.

"Boobs"

No, not boobs...NEVER giving up boobs!

My pet peeve from a year or so ago was AS. AS I do this, AS I do that. Geesh!

 

[oggbashan]

Said... This is one of my (many) pet peeves. Way too many stories, even from respected, published authors use said too often.

Dialogue becomes tiring if every sentence ends or starts with he said/she said.

But most readers don't notice. Their eyes skip dialogue tags except where there might be confusion about who is speaking.

 

[KeithD]

My premier "too many" word is "now."

 

[TadOverdon]

I like Urban's list but agree that she's overboard on the dialogue tags. Her example here:

“You have a map,” said Ramona. “Figure it out.”

versus

“You have a map.” Ramona took a drag from her cigarette. “Figure it out."

That doesn't fulfill her mandate to avoid slowing down the pace or being distracting, nor does it tell you anything necessarily interesting about her characters or their situation. The smoking business is just that, business, which may add a little color but not enough to support Urban's mandate.

Since this is porn, "slowly" and "pleasure..." but it's difficult to do without either of them.

 

[MiddleAgedMan]

But most readers don't notice. Their eyes skip dialogue tags except where there might be confusion about who is speaking.

True enough I guess, it's one of those small words, true. Problem is when you start to see them, you can't unsee them. And when read, like in audiobooks, it becomes a huge problem. I actually had to stop listening to a book series I like a lot, quite simply because the author had long stretches of dialogue going back and forth between two or three people, each individual sentence ending with Said.

I try to limit the use of it as much as possible, but it is of course vitally important and needs to be used quite a lot.

 

[AlinaX]

I found that reading stories out loud to people. Saying the dialogue tags is daft; you have to act out the dialogue.