If you haven’t seen this already, Lake Superior State University in Michigan has released its “Words to be Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness” for the 38th year in a row.
This year’s hit list:
Fiscal cliff
Kick the can down the road
Double down
Job creators/creation
Passion/passionate
YOLO (You only live once)
Spoiler alert
Bucket list
Trending
Superfood
Guru
Boneless wings
(For expanded descriptions and the reasons for the choices, click here.)
We all have words and phrases we like to use, often to the point of overuse. Maybe we’re not even aware we’re using them. When we’re writing, they seem to sneak into our manuscripts via our fingers, and sometimes it’s as if the brain isn’t involved at all.
Little words, like “just” and “really” and “well” are commonly listed among words that don’t add anything to the manuscript other than giving our brains time to catch up with what we’re trying to write. They’re the equivalent of the “um” in speaking. No matter how many times I tell myself to avoid overusing “just”, when I do my search during edits, I’ll find they’re popping up all over the place.
Big “fancy” words are in another category. Miasma? Effulgent? Parsimony? They’re going to jump out at a reader, and should be used sparingly, perhaps only once or twice in an entire manuscript. And, of course, the caveat that any “fancy” words are appropriate to the character, the genre, and the timeframe of the book. If you’re reading a Regency romance, the language is going to be totally different from a contemporary.
I catch a lot of repeats and ‘boring’ words when I print out my daily output and read it on the page instead of the screen. Even when I go back and improve word choices, when it comes time for my final run-through for crutch words, they’re still there. Normally, I will check for context. Is it dialogue? Does it enhance the characterization? Then, I look to see how long it’s been since the last time I used the word. (There’s that “you’re on page XXX” thing at the bottom of Word) If it’s a common word, my goal is at least 10 pages between uses. “Medium” words, maybe 30–50 pages. And those big fancy ones? If they’re truly the character speaking, and not authorial intrusion, once is enough.
What words do you overuse? What words bug you when you’re reading? And, what would you add to this year’s “banned” list?
Hey, Terry,
There’s nothing wrong with “Kick the Can” — it was one of the BEST of games for us as kids growing up in post-war Liverpool when we had nothing and still managed to amuse ourselves!! LOL
Agree with you about overused words becoming meaningless — top of MY “bonfire of the Vanities” list would be either “like .… ” thrown in without reason or need [E.g. “She was, like, coming down the road, like …”] or the irritating question “You know?” in the middle of a sentence: I often feel like screaming “No, I DON’T know: not until you tell me!” — and especially when a (usually very minor) ‘celeb’ of some sort is pontificating about something in a TV interview.
First against the wall when the revolution comes, as Douglas Adams might have said…
When I was in my teens, my dad would interrupt me every time I said “you know?” and say “No, I don’t.” That broke me of that habit, and I don’t use that phrase in my writing (unless I’m writing a valley girl, but I’ve never done that). Dialogue can be ‘forgiving’ but only if it’s true to the character.
Good post, Terry. When I finish a mss I read through it for overuse of certain words, awkward phrasing, and the like, but it’s getting harder and harder to decide of an unusual word should be changed. The vocabulary of the general reading public is changing.
Susan, so true. I know my vocabulary doesn’t come close to understanding Regency dialogue–I rely on the author to make sure things are in context. I write contemporary–and then there the other ‘wrinkle’ of using phrases that are currently in fashion but will be out of date and not understood a few years down the road.
The expression “You Know” when speaking with someone drives me nuts!
And if you write it into your dialogue, it’ll drive your readers nuts, too.
Terrific post, Terry. or is terrific over used. Kick the can could be brutal-my cousin split his lip when the can flipped back at him. I believe in letting the words flow best as you can and going in the next day to fix. But, well, you know, just do you’re best. Kidding here. Thanks.
Knowing you need to take another look, and knowing what to look for will make your edits stronger.
Terry, I agree with you about reading aloud. You catch so many things you just skim over when you read. And I watch for places I stumble, knowing the reader will do just the same. I mean, if it’s confusing to me, how confusing would it be to someone reading cold?
I overuse awesome in blog posts and comments. Congrats, too. But heck, (there’s another one) I think other writers know what we’re saying.
I’ve used Wordle to illustrate the most used words in my ms. Hard to face when you see the word THE bigger than the hero’s name, for instance. My daughter, who is a teacher, likes to use it in class to illustrate her students writing: http://www.wordle.net/
Great post.
Thanks, Sharon — Wordle is fun, although “the” is a word we can’t exactly do without. I’ll bet “he” would show up more than my hero’s name, though. (I think there’s a setting in Wordle to have it ignore things like “the” — but maybe that’s autocrit, another great tool for showing you which words you rely on too heavily.)
Yup. Guilty as charged.
I discovered, even better than reading aloud myself, have the story read aloud by someone who’s never seen it before and doesn’t do a good cold read. Without the automatic emotions we read into our work, repetitions and awkward phrasing jump out and slap us silly.
And who doesn’t love being slapped silly! I don’t know if I have any friends loyal enough to read an entire manuscript aloud (or if I could stand listening!)
But yes, great advice.
LOL — I wouldn’t mind seeing this one added to the list.
It does show up a lot, doesn’t it!
I saw the news article about this year’s overused words and my first thought was to blog about it, but you beat me to it!
I have two words I overuse ad nauseum (I think that’s spelled wrong). THAT and ACTUALLY. With THAT, I read the sentence out loud, first time with the offending THAT in and the second time with it out. If the sentence makes sense without the THAT, I remove it. And still, I can’t stop myself from overusing it.
Ah, the evil “that.” Yes, I do the same thing. If you don’t need “that” leave it out. (And on another note, be careful you’re not using it to refer to a person–they get “who”).
Our fingers type without engaging our brains a lot more than we’d like to think. At least that’s my theory, and I’m sticking to it.