I have decided that it’s going to be weird quirk week here at The Life and Times of a Freelance Writer. Why? Why not?

Today I’m going to talk about love words. Not as in “Baby, you so fine,” but as the words that we fall in love with and suddenly find ourselves using over and over again. I have had many of these over the years. Sometimes I catch them in time to avoid making myself look silly, but others times (especially in my early fiction), people have actually pointed them out to me. Thanks, people.

So what’s wrong with recycling the same word over and over? First, it’s visually boring. Use another word already! As a writer, your goal should be to move the piece along with every sentence. If your current sentence repeats a sentiment, thought or fact that you have previously declared, then that sentence is probably unnecessary.

Second, using the same word over and over again is tiring. If the reader has to stumble over “anthropomorphically” three times in the same paragraph, her brain is simply going to get tired. No matter how spectacular the rest of the piece is, you’ve lost her just a little and chances are she’ll put your story or article down sooner.

Ready for some examples of my love words?

Ubiquitous – This is my current love word. I’m not sure why I write about things that are ubiquitous so often. If they are that ubiquitous, the reader should probably know about them already. But there it is.

Manifest – For a long time, nothing in my world appeared or cropped up. No, it manifested. Even though I dropped my “manifest” habit long ago, now that I’m looking at that delectable word again, I’m feeling awfully tempted to use it. That’s why it’s a love word.

Unfortunately – This is the Jennifer-slayer. Throughout my entire life I have used this word like they just dropped it from the dictionary. Perhaps I write about a lot of sad topics? Of course, when I write about happy topics, there’s always unfortunately’s sister, “fortunately.” That “unfortunately” is one of my love words is especially sad because it’s usually unnecessary. The contents of a sentence beginning with “unfortunately” usually speak for themselves. (I.e. “Unfortunately, Frank’s whole family had been slaughtered by lizardmen.”)

Before I conclude, I do want to mention that sometimes frequent usage of a word isn’t a bad thing at all. In some instances, especially in poetry, repetition can create a cadence. Other times favored words become part of a writer’s unique style. For example, my favorite poet, T.S. Eliot loves the word “linger.” I don’t get irritated every time something in one of his poems lingers. Instead, I feel comfortable knowing that I’m enjoying his unique style.

So how about you guys? Do you have any love words? Let’s hear them in the comments.