Words to avoid

[Dorm Ant]

This article is interesting. It makes the point that words like "felt" and "realised" are a sign of amateurs. Whether you agree with the writer on not, he explains his case very well.

Words to Avoid in Writing: Weak Words to Find, Cut, and Replace

When you're writing your book, it is common to include a lot of words that you don't need. Learn what you can do to fix it.

kindlepreneur.com

Words to Avoid in Writing: Weak Words to Find, Cut, and Replace

 

[JamieRae]

This is interesting, thanks for sharing. It is quite the exhaustive list and while I agree with most, as always, these things come down to the voice we choose to write from.

 

[LA Thomas]

I still have a way to go but cutting filler words based on this video really helped to elevate my writing:



Trying to avoid writing ‘sound’ usually gets me scratching my head (but I don’t think that’s covered in this video)!

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

I still have a way to go but cutting filler words based on this video really helped to elevate my writing:



Trying to avoid writing ‘sound’ usually gets me scratching my head (but I don’t think that’s covered in this video)!

When do you need "sound"? It's a very abstract word that is either unnecessary (e.g. the banging sound reverberated in my ears) because the context will imply the "sound" part or you could use a specific word for the sound (e.g, the door-slam). I'd only use "sound" if the character speaking or POV doesn't recognise the sound.
"What's that sound?"
"Someone, maybe a kid, is hitting a ball against the door."
"A ball against wood doesn't sound like that."

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

I'll add to the list, not a word but an exclamation mark. Often overused; rarely needed. There is likely to be a verb or an action beat which will "show" the exclamation.

 

[SarahC]

I'm editing at the moment, so this is very useful, thanks for sharing. Some of these I was able to catch myself doing as I was writing eg. felt, too many adverbs etc. But I just realised I have used words for breathing far too much. I have lots of breathing out, sighing, held breaths, sharp inhales. All of my characters are heavy breathers apparently I also recognised the "began" thing - I suspect I will find lots of "she began to run" etc. as I'm working through. Good to know and look out for.

 

[LA Thomas]

One of my favourites was sighing I also had almost 1,000 ‘that’s and in dialogue a lot of ‘well’s

 

[Dorm Ant]

One of my favourites was sighing I also had almost 1,000 ‘that’s and in dialogue a lot of ‘well’s

I had too much nodding and too much "...(character's name) continued..."

 

[Dorm Ant]

I'm editing at the moment, so this is very useful, thanks for sharing. Some of these I was able to catch myself doing as I was writing eg. felt, too many adverbs etc. But I just realised I have used words for breathing far too much. I have lots of breathing out, sighing, held breaths, sharp inhales. All of my characters are heavy breathers apparently I also recognised the "began" thing - I suspect I will find lots of "she began to run" etc. as I'm working through. Good to know and look out for.

OMFG I hate "...began to..." so much. It grinds my gears.

Once you look out for it in your own writing and kill it, you see it so often in other unpublished writers' work.

 

[LA Thomas]

Began and started, those bad boys had to be edited out too. I made every basic error ever! (And continue to ha ha)

 

[JohnBertel]

Thanks for sharing.

I don't think that Feeling and Thinking Words can be lumped in with the rest. Aren't those more about controlling the distance to the character? And you don't always want to be close with all your characters.

 

[LA Thomas]

I think its the actual literal word 'feel' rather than showing the feeling that's the point.

 

[Pamela Jo]

Thanks for sharing.

I don't think that Feeling and Thinking Words can be lumped in with the rest. Aren't those more about controlling the distance to the character? And you don't always want to be close with all your characters.

And I think it is the usual. balance between getting on with the story and following rules. Don't overuse-but sometimes you just need to move the plot forward.