Those Pesky Words…

When I was in grad school, I frequently had to comb through my papers for excess “moreover”s. I LOVE “moreover” (in academic contexts, at least) and tended to overuse it in my initial drafts.

It turns out that I also have a few words I tend to overuse in my fiction writing. I think one of the contributors to this problem is that, in the initial drafts, writing goes so slowly. When you’re writing small chunks each day, it’s easy to forget that you already used a word or phrase several times in the chunk you completed the previous day. So then when you sit down to re-read the whole thing at once, you get bludgeoned to death by the constant use of a word/phrase, and then you realize it’s actually not even necessary most of the time, and then you start to spiral into disillusion as you wonder how on earth you’re going to make it as a writer if this is what you end up with… (is it just me?)…

I remember the first time I read Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel’s Legacy series. FYI, this is one of my all-time favorite series and OMG if you haven’t read it you should go do that right meow. However, I was bothered by how frequently she used “mayhap” and “betimes” and “bemused” at the beginning of the first book. No doubt she was trying to use these archaic words to situate us into a fantasy world with a medieval-ish feel (you know, where people use swords and ride horses and there are knights and stuff). But it was too much. Thankfully, these words seemed to become less frequent as the story progressed.

Sometimes authors have favorite idiomatic ways of expressing an action or emotion, too. In shorter books, this can be quite noticeable. For example, in “Butcher and Blackbird” by Brynne Weaver (which is fun, but not one of my faves), characters often “huff a laugh.” Then there’s the Outlander series, which is long enough that Diana Gabaldon had no choice but to reuse her phrases several times. Even still, I couldn’t help but notice that her characters frequently “fix” their “gazes” on stuff.

OK, enough preamble. Here are my overused words that I noticed (and tried to fix, where possible) in my last read-through of Her Undying Thirst:

Perhaps (ah, now the picture makes sense)

Of Course

Certainly

Anyway, I’d love to hear from you all. Are there any overused words or phrases you’ve noticed in a particular author? Was it enough to bother you? Or, if you’re a writer, what are those pesky words that you can’t seem to stop using?

In Proximum, Regina Vestra