ELIMINATING OVERUSED AND WEAK WORDS

I’m deep in revisions for The Matriarch’s Devise (the upcoming sequel to The Healer’s Legacy) and now that I have filled the plot holes, increased the conflict, and refined my characters, I am sifting through the manuscript in an effort to stamp out the overuse of my “favorite” words.

Don’t get me wrong, I love words. All kinds, shapes and sizes. BUT I find when I am writing a first draft, I have a tendency to over use certain words. Words like “look” and “head” and “away” often top the list, as do their related variations. And with every book, there comes a time in the revision process where these words must be made to pull their share of the load or be eliminated.

I appreciate “look” for its place-holding abilities and for allowing me to write without hesitation when in the creative stage of first drafting. But, let’s face it, not only is the poor thing generally overworked, he just doesn’t always have the right muscles for the job at hand. (And don’t tell him I said so, but he can be completely superfluous.)

While there are perfectly good and legitimate ways to use the word “look,” it is easy to overuse and abuse this poor little verb. Opportunities for eliminating this little guy often include simply trusting the reader. Or, as is often the case, even if you really need the character to look someone in the eye, having them gaze, stare, peer or glower can provide the same effective stage direction, but will also add a nuance of emotion to the scene. These words do a lot more heavy lifting than the more generic “look.”

When sorting through the document, using the find function to search for my favorites, I’m not only seeking to stamp out redundancy and weak words, but to tighten and clarify the prose. At each instance of the word, I read the sentence and/or section to determine what purpose the word is fulfilling and then I ask myself the following types of questions:

Is there a better way to say this?
Is there a different action I can give the character?
Is this even necessary, or can the reader make sense of what is happening without it?
Can I revise it in a way that provides additional emotion and/or sensory detail?

Of course, I don’t eliminate every instance of the word. There are perfectly good places to use the word look, or one of its variations. And I never want my writing to read as if I spent my time just picking words out of a Thesaurus. However, I work very hard to balance the use of such words with their stronger, studier, more hard-working cousins.

So, what are some of your favorite words?

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