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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.
July 21st, 2009 at 9:50 am
Proliferation.
July 21st, 2009 at 9:52 am
Writing about nuclear war, are we?
July 21st, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Mold.
July 21st, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Is that today or just in general? I’d hate to think you have a problem refraining from describing everything as moldy. In fact, that sounds like a Mad Lib gone horribly wrong.
July 21st, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Digestible.
Jessie Fitzgerald´s last blog ..Sex Columnist Stardom and Cash a La Carrie Bradshaw: How to Be a Luxurious "shoegal" with Syndication
July 21st, 2009 at 6:37 pm
A sex writer that overuses the word digestible? Sold. Jessie, I’m going to have to start reading your blog every single day.
Thanks for stopping by, by the way! I wrote for a pro-sex magazine until it mysteriously went out of business (c’est la vie) and found my job a lot of fun. I think you and I will have a lot to talk about!
July 22nd, 2009 at 12:14 am
Jenn, I am excited to here that. What magazine did you write for? And as far as digestible over-usage, not to disappoint, but I find that I use it all too much in pitches and networking.
Hope to still chit chat plenty!
Jessie Fitzgerald´s last blog ..Sex Columnist Stardom and Cash a La Carrie Bradshaw: How to Be a Luxurious "shoegal" with Syndication
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:51 am
What a fun topic! I would guess that I use the word “crept” a lot, as in thoughts and memories that creep into your mind. I’m going to have to look that up. I use Scrivener when I write and it’ll give you a count of how often you use certain words.
Natalia Maldonado´s last blog ..Why the mark of great editing is no mark at all
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:55 am
Jessie - Haha! I suspected as much. I wrote for a magazine called “Got Folks.” It lasted all of three glorious issues, but I had a great time doing it. (Wow, I just checked and the website is now a skeezy social network.) Also, love your blog. I left you a comment or two over there and added it to my RSS so I can keep up with you.
Natalia - You know, at least “crept” is a verb. Strong verbs make the world go round! I’ve heard about those programs that try to help you with your writing style. What do you think of Scrivener?
July 22nd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Jenn - that’s true, I hadn’t thought of “crept” that way!
Scrivener’s a cool organization tool for long forms of writing, so I mainly use it for when I’m writing fiction. You can separate everything into chapters, and within those chapters you can switch tabs between the actual text and an outline tool. Basically it helps when you’ve left off on Ch. 7 and don’t have to scroll through hundreds of pages to get to it. You can also export when you’re done to Word or an rtf file, either into one large document or one document for each chapter. My favorite feature is the Trash bin, because I don’t like to delete things, so if a scene isn’t working I just put it there until I find a good place for it (or if I don’t, it’s still nice to know it’s there in case there was an image or sentence I can use elsewhere).
I’m sure there are more features but I haven’t had to use them yet.
But when I’m writing articles or doing copywriting I use Word.
Natalia Maldonado´s last blog ..Why the mark of great editing is no mark at all
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Wow, I could have used Scrivener’s a couple of years ago when I was in novella mode. I wrote two 40,000 word pieces back to back and one of my biggest problems was juggling Word documents with the outlines, the notes, the deleted-but-not-forgotten passages, and the actual finished text. I’m going to check this thing out the next time the fiction bug bites me.
Actually, it might be helpful on a project I’m working on for a nonprofit. I currently use Microsoft OneNote for most of my note taking and organizing, but it isn’t as conducive to the actual writing as Scrivener’s seems to be. Thanks for the info! This has been very enlightening.
July 25th, 2009 at 1:00 am
However. I find that word cropping up in practically every sentence I type/speak/think. However, it isn’t always without merit ;0)
Bumbles´s last blog ..ON PHOTOS ~ Weather…
July 25th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Oh Bumbles. When I was in high school, I went through a “thus” phase. I’m sure my teacher didn’t know what to make of me.