Each and every one of these gets put through a wringer: Context. Intent. The possibility of synonyms, and a consideration of nuance. Number of repetitions. Whether the repetition is by accident or design.

In other words, everything that has bitten me before.

This is my reason for having a lifetime membership - my brain is tired more than lazy all the time due to chronic illness and disability, so I let it serve up the most convenient word WHEN WRITING. But I'm not going to let them stand - not without a raze-to-the-ground fight.

Because my readers deserve the best I can provide on the LANGUAGE side of the writing.

This takes a fair amount of time per scene, but I think of it as the best investment of that time I can make, because the final product is improved in so many ways. I look for strong verbs instead of verb + adverb combinations, better nouns instead of modified nouns, and also places where I can do what you mentioned, reinforce a motif or thread I want to keep.

And I don't have to count or do the time-consuming searches because AC is merciless.

Last tip: after the scene is polished through this process, I put it through several of the steps one final time - because I have had the experience of working on synonyms and nuance, and finding out that to reduce the count of one way of saying things, I have increased the count of another!

I'll add those to my list. "Even" is another one I know I have to weed out. I fear this may be like the proverbial table with one slightly longer leg...

We all have our own pets! Now I double-dare you to see if we share some others: turned, stare, felt like, seemed to ... oh, I could go on and on!

"Begin to" - only a few in my 83,000 manuscript. Ha! See how good I am?

"Started to" - oops. A few more (dozen) there.

"Just" - holy moly. I'm aware that it's an overused word, and I tried to avoid it, but it's just so, y'know, easy to use.

Now my 82,000 ms will be much simpler for my next search and employ. Thanks!

Glad you found it useful! Thank you!

denise

I'm so glad! Every good rule has its inverse, no? Not all "frequently used words" are to be destroyed. I think the challenge is to discriminate between those that don't evoke anything and are just habits, and those that have "untapped evocative potential." I'd love to know what new gems you discover in your own writing!

Only five? Not bad! I always find a lot of "started to" and "turned to" and "realized that," which of course add nothing. As always, Laura Drake is spot on! And I have a personal tendency to have characters who nod, shake heads, frown, smile, and shrug. So I think there are some tics that a lot of us have and others that are personal pets! My list keeps growing, unfortunately 🙂

I totally use that one, Rick. Laura Drake is the one who trained me out of it. Began to, started to, going to...she convinced me to let the character just DO.