Do you ever overuse certain words?

[autumnsugar]

If so, what are they?

I personally feel like I overuse the word “quickly” and I have to make a conscious effort to not use it constantly.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Not necessarily an overuse of a single word. I tend to add "though" at the end of a sentence instead of the beginning, where it actually should be.

Also, I will use some phrases often, and they often seem to become repetitive to me as the writer, though no one has mentioned it to me yet.

 

[georgelee5786]

Fuck.

 

[Envylope]

Mine is nodded or shrugged.

 

[L1aei]

Pronouns. It's unavoidable though, right?

 

[empalgepuk]

Frowning and slight variations of it. I need to upgrade my gesture game soon.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

I use well done a well done amount.

 

[Envylope]

Pronouns. It's unavoidable though, right?

Yeah, I add different things to call them. Like friendly reminders of features. She/the young woman/the silver-haired vampire/the blue-eyed girl/etc.

 

[georgelee5786]

Mine is nodded or shrugged.

enby shrugged

 

[Eldoria]

Overuse and repetition words are likely due to a lack of vocabulary and a lack of editing. Web novels are rarely professionally edited due to their rapid release. And mine?

It's the same... my narrative uses a lot of repetitive words that can be boring. I'll probably edit it again if necessary, considering I'm more focused on finishing the story than writing beautiful prose.

Here are some repetitive words that I often use: nodding, smiling slightly, pursing my lips, blinking my eyes, walking, standing up straight, mumbling, gasping for breath, looking, turning my head, turning around, stroking, etc.

However, if I want to publish my fiction as a book, editing is certainly an urgent need.

 

[L1aei]

Yeah, I add different things to call them. Like friendly reminders of features. She/the young woman/the silver-haired vampire/the blue-eyed girl/etc.

How do you handle it when writing in first person?

 

[NullAButton]

There have been several times where I caught myself overusing the word several, often appearing several times in one paragraph, across several stories. I generally catch it during the grammar/formatting check stage, but there were several times where the overuse slipped through.

 

[Paul__Michaels]

As

 

[Envylope]

How do you handle it when writing in first person?

That's easy. I don't write in first person anymore because I realized third person limited is superior.

 

[L1aei]

That's easy. I don't write in first person anymore because I realized third person limited is superior.

But you lose out on so much self-deprecating humor doing that though.

 

[Envylope]

But you lose out on so much self-deprecating humor doing that though.

No you don't. In third person limited you can zoom into first person with italics.

 

[L1aei]

No you don't. In third person limited you can zoom into first person with italics.

Hmm... I'll have to remember doing that.

 

[RainyLiquid]

Nope. I'm perfect in every way.

 

[JayMark]

The - Can't be helped because English is the language of the, but I will erase it if not needed.
Scene Dependent Word - This can be any fancy word that gets stuck on my head and I start using multiple times in every sentence until it loses its power.
Said - I try to avoid using this tag now when it is obvious who is speaking. I used to literally tag EVERY dialogue.
Characer Names - I catch myself repeating character names I like too much.
Of - The door of the car < The car's door.
Pronouns - I don't like it when too many paragraphs start with a pronoun. So I try to at least mix it up some.
And - My drifts will be swimming in conjunction. I try to prune it.
Then - Tag teams with 'and' to make my prose awkward. This word is not needed 99 percent of the time.
Suddenly - A word that is rarely ever needed and sometimes sucks energy from the narrative.
Very - When I started writing I did things like using very x 5 and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I don't use very outside of dialogue unless I'm writing half-dead or drunk.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Frowning and slight variations of it. I need to upgrade my gesture game soon.

At least you don't have The Butler (I hope ... otherwise the guy is really bad) making EVERYONE (even the dog) furrow their brows at least twice a chapter as a certain audionovel does...

I'm sure there are several I overuse. I try to fix that in editing and probably am not as good as I should be at it.