When I began drafting Fingerprints, one of my critique group members, Sarah, pointed out that I had used the word "bolt" 67 times.
After doing a "find" in Word, I discovered Sarah was right! My MC, Savanna, had bolted out of bed, down the hall, across the street, out of David's house, into the salon, into the ocean and about 100 million other places.
Oops.
Since then, I've learned to use my thesaurus and choose my verbs very carefully.
What words or phrases do you tend to overuse?
xoxo,
Suzanne
That's funny that you used bolt to many times!Mine was looked!
ReplyDeleteI used a word cloud and put my manuscript in it and that one stood out! Had to definitely change that. I should use the Find feature too to make sure there aren't more!
Funny! I discovered I used "shivered" and "trembled" for a character I did NOT perceive as fearful at ALL. Weird. That shows you the value of good readers, right?
ReplyDeleteYou're back! You have a book out! Congratulations!
Yes, good readers are so important! Thank you for visiting and for the congratulations. :)
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