Is there a word you use too much?

I seem to have the problem with the word "though." On the forum, in conversation, texting, WIPs... Though is my favorite word.

At least it's unique though!

 

I sometimes get panicky whenever I use the word - but. I'm drawn to it and I get paranoid I'm using it too much.

 

just, really, very, quite ...they all trip me up, and I use them without thinking. Then I have to edit them out. At least I do edit them out, most of the time. Of course they all have their uses, but not all the time.

 

I've had to stop after every time I use "and" or "but" and make sure it's not really two sentences being thrown together.

I checked for - though
213 times out of 94150 words. I think I'm okay with that one.

 

Actually, joining two complete sentences (clauses) with and or but is perfectly correct! What's not correct is splicing them together with a comma instead.

Correct:
He always believed whatever she told him, and he never asked himself why.
He always believed whatever she told him, but he never asked himself why.

Not correct:
He always believed whatever she told him, he never asked himself why.

 

Damn, I tend to do this.

 

A semicolon would fix it, though.

 

I was under the impression that a comma wasn't required before "but" & "and" because those are already pause words. Am I remembering my high school English wrong?

 

Thanks, Wrey I didn't know of this feature!

I am aware of being guilty of but, yet, though, also, but then I recognised that a long while ago so during writing I can immediately take care of that and no new ones (and certainly not these old ones!) got pointed out by scriv

 

It depends. If the 'but' or 'and' join two independent clauses together you use a comma. If one clause is dependent on the other (I.e. Doesn't form a complete sentence on its own) then you don't need the comma.

That's the general rule anyway, there's some other exceptions I think, though that's when my own grammar knowledge is shakier than I'd like.

 

In answer to the topic, just, well, now, seemed are all words I reduce on editing.
I seemed to go through a phase recently of using 'at least' a lot too.

 

To be honest, I put commas in when they seem right. In fact, in that example, I first wrote it without the commas after the conjunctions, then put them in because it seemed to read better that way. Okay, take me out and shoot me! I'm not very good at quoting the rules.

Sometimes it boils down to clarity. He called and I came. He called, and I came. I think in most instances I'd use the comma, but because the sentence is so short, I reckon you could get by without the comma in certain circumstances? Dunno.

I am curious, though. I never heard the term 'pause words' before.

 

That's interesting. All three of these work from a grammatical point of view. But the meaning is slightly altered in each instance, isn't it?

He always believed whatever she told him, and he never asked himself why. (Implying he had implicit belief in whatever she said)

He always believed whatever she told him, but he never asked himself why. (Implying he probably should have questioned her)

He always believed whatever she told him; he never asked himself why. (Implying it was more or less expected that he would always believe her)

The semicolon implies an unfinished thought which is completed by the second half of the sentence, doesn't it? While a conjunction adds a thought to another thought? Or something like that.

Language is fun.

 

Commas are nothing to do with pauses, despite what most of us are taught in school. Damn teachers!

 

I think I use the word "rather" too much. I use it rather often....
Now that I think about it, I also end a few too many sentences in ellipses. Sometimes a period just feels too abrupt....
(purposely overusing words as a joke = not very creative)

 

He had always believed everything she told him. Never questioning orders, never wondering why, it just wasn't in his nature.

Now, is it correct to drop ands out of that and is mixing the tense bad? Which of these is okay?

He had always believed everything she told him. Questioning orders, wondering why, not things he would do.

He had always believed everything she told him. Never questioning orders or wondering why because it just wasn't in his nature.

He had always believed everything she told him. Never had he questioned order or wondered why, it just wasn't in his nature.

He had always believed everything she told him. Never had he questioned order or wondered why; it just wasn't in his nature

He had always believed everything she told him. Never had he questioned order or wondered why because it just wasn't in his nature.

I guess the negatives are also weird.

He had always believed everything she told him. Questioning orders was never his nature.

He had always believed everything she told him. Questioning orders had never been in his nature.

He had always believed everything she told him. Questioning orders just wasn't in his nature.

The last one is probably the clearest but only because it avoids all of the problems instead of solving them into a correct sentence.

 

Looking at it very unscientifically, I know I use "know" and "look" in all their forms rather frequently in my WIP. But it's about a couple of visual artists, both of whom are cerebral types, so what can I dooooo????

 

That, and, and just.

 

One might argue I use why, what, how, and was too often, but I don't think so because I mostly use them when the main character is thinking questions to herself. The words I think I may be overusing are:

Smiled, grinned, looked, nodded, shook (head), laughed, then, while, after, finally, finished

In areas where characters have to be fast and/or quiet: quickly, carefully, quietly, cautiously, slowly, (heart) pounded

The worst part is, no matter how hard I try to come up with new ways of saying these or conveying the emotion/idea, I can't seem to figure out a way to do it! I mean, how else do you say someone nodded or laughed or walked carefully?

"His head bobbed up and down." That's just . . . no. Mostly I struggle with the dragon doing this--he can't speak human!

"Echoes of laughter rippled through the air." First of all I already say " . . . the air" a lot (but not too much at the moment, I hope), and secondly, who's the person laughing? Thirdly, that still says "laughter," which is almost as bad as saying, "he laughed," right? I have a new character who laughs a lot, and this is becoming a real problem.

"She picked up one foot and put it down." Um . . . duh?

I sometimes have to write the same basic concept (i.e. walked cautiously over) many times on the same page with at least two to a paragraph.


The good news is, most of the published books I read aren't as well written as one might think. They break A LOT of rules, some of which they really shouldn't of broken because it adds confusion or nothing to the story/writing.

The bad news is, reading them doesn't teach me how to fix my own writing . . .

 

Nothing wrong with saying "He laughed"-- unless he does it every other line. You can even get away with the laughter rippling through the air, though I'd deep-six the echoes part. But rippling laughter should come only from children or young ladies or perhaps from elves or fairies. And not more than once.

I'm reading a book where the characters keep emitting "wordless cries" and "wordless roars." Good grief, can't they just shout or roar or cry out? Why constantly point out the absence of words? (And it's by an author who should know better.)

 

Yeah, all of them that I happen to type. So that list is far too long for me to care to make. Wait that means every writer that ever was or will be.

I use the following without fail: I, the, me, myself, them, retrieve, glance, and, mad, and blood. (some in different variations based upon context)
Also adjectives for dialogue and facial expressions
Wow my list is all over the place, and kinda makes me look mental. Yay for not looking completely normal!

 

Haha, Cave Troll, you're a riot!

Good to know I can use "he laughed," but he does laugh a lot, so I have to figure out how to limit the need to say it (he's not really a chuckler). He's a big man who can find humor in anything--and he's not entirely human. I guess that means the rippling through the air can work, although I still try to keep that sort of thing really, really limited. Otherwise it just looks cliché or weird (at least it does with my skills).

Yikes! I hate reading that sort of thing, especially if it's a constant.

 

"Just" is one of mine as well. I have a number of "verbal tics" that show up in my writing, and getting rid of them is part of my editing process. One of my techniques is to globally replace the offending word or string with itself in red. Then I go through and deal with each occurrence.

 

Just call yourself J.D salinger. It works very well. It really does. It's quite the trick.

 

Yeah.