Topic: List of No-No words

When I edit my own work I make a list of all the words I use either way too much or just plain wrong. I thought it would be fun to share and see what other writer's no-no words are.
As
And - I love me a run on and on and on
Stare - my characters will do a lot of staring if I don't watch them closely
Suddenly - this one is just a pet peeve
Started
Little - I like a little bit of this and a little bit of that
Very - I think this is everyone's favorite
That - I think MS word loves that more than I do
Actually
So - the cousin of and

Quote Post 1

Re: List of No-No words

Weed out as many "the's" as you can. Try to avoid the double prepositions (over to, over at, etc.). Use that only when you must for clarification. It's sometimes necessary. Next and then get tiresome. Last! PLEASE GET THE LAY/LIE USAGE CORRECT! And never trust Word! Whoever programmed their grammar, needs to go back to school. I don't know how many times Word has underlined it's to be its when it's a contraction for it is.

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Re: List of No-No words

Just, though, and that are my big ones.  I also find I'll use the same word over and over in a chapter randomly - the other day, I was editing one and realized I'd used the word door 24 times.  Yikes!

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Re: List of No-No words

Looked....people do a lot of looking at each other....guess I should take up some staring....or perhaps a little gazing.

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Re: List of No-No words

I had a (that) attack recently.

Quote Post 5

6 Reply by Janet Taylor-Perry (edited by Janet Taylor-Perry 2015-05-11 13:36:40)

Re: List of No-No words

A habit I'm still trying to break is using first and last names after the initial introduction. I'm entering Mountain Moonshine in the Faulkner competition this year. Novels over 100,000 words are double the entry fee. I was over by 497 words. Went back and took out 90% of the places I used first and last names; and then did a THAT search and now, I'm under 100,000 words. WHO'D A THUNK????

Speaking of-----I need to go and disable Mountain Moonshine.

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Re: List of No-No words

Just to play devil's advocate, these words are part of the English language, so I have little concern about using them. The only people who might care are editors and fellow authors, neither of whom is likely to be a significant part of my target audience. I prefer to write stories the way I would tell them.

I'm in the middle of a Star Wars novel. They break all kinds of rules about good writing. Yet, the story reads well throughout, except it has too mansy names of places, technology, and charactes.

End of rant.
Dirk

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8 Reply by Charles_F_Bell (edited by Charles_F_Bell 2015-05-11 22:00:32)

Re: List of No-No words

Norm d'Plume wrote:

Just to play devil's advocate, these words are part of the English language, so I have little concern about using them. The only people who might care are editors and fellow authors, neither of whom is likely to be a significant part of my target audience. I prefer to write stories the way I would tell them.

I'm in the middle of a Star Wars novel. They break all kinds of rules about good writing. Yet, the story reads well throughout, except it has too mansy names of places, technology, and charactes.

End of rant.
Dirk

I think there is writing suitable in the heat of the moment, and then there's writing after reflection. The saying that time is the best editor is a good saying.  I think there is some official house sheet of copyeditor's rules that unwisely excludes most adverbs, but "very", "actually", "really" and others naturally flow out in that initial desire to emphasize, but in later reflection those words can be thrown out as unnecessary.

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9 Reply by Charles_F_Bell (edited by Charles_F_Bell 2015-05-11 22:24:34)

Re: List of No-No words

J_Teck wrote:

Just, though, and that are my big ones.  I also find I'll use the same word over and over in a chapter randomly - the other day, I was editing one and realized I'd used the word door 24 times.  Yikes!

I don't think repeating a noun is such a sin, and may indicate the author's desire to add emphasis to a word or to use the word as a leitmotif. In a preamble of 86 words I used the word "book" 8 times, 10 times the percentage of "door" 24 times in a 2400-word chapter.  I'd think the reader would have to be an idiot to think that I did not mean to say something by that.

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Re: List of No-No words

I sometimes have to try hard not to overuse these, and Im sure there are a bunch of others, but these come to mind as the most irritating for me.

Shine
then
glinted
saw
wondered
thought/think
said
smiled
very
slowly
started
liked
began
dark
light
few
several
little
lot
some
there
determined

Quote Post 10

Re: List of No-No words

Gods Ghost wrote:

I sometimes have to try hard not to overuse these, and Im sure there are a bunch of others, but these come to mind as the most irritating for me.

Shine
then
glinted
saw
wondered
thought/think
said
smiled
very
slowly
started
liked
began
dark
light
few
several
little
lot
some
there
determined

shine, light, glinted, dark - if key to theme, character and plot should be repeated, even to a little annoyance.

latin-originated like "determine" should rarely be repeated.
some, little,lot,few,very  you will find are not necessary

"-ing"  words -

English  has this odd progressive verb tense and otherwise continuing verb tense that[1] uses participles: I am reading; there are ..    German, for example, has "es gibt" for "there is" using [1] an idiomatic *active* verb, but English has this "to be" condition and a predicate construction  so there may be [1] in narration and certainly in non-fiction many "there"'s and participles which can be tiresome, but "I am reading" is always the correct way to put "I read" for immediately current action, but modifying participial phrases like "reading a book" is frequently overused at the beginning of sentences and rarely correct at the end of a sentence. "Reading a book, Joe ran into the wall" is better put "While reading a book, Joe ran into a wall"; and "Joe ran into a wall, reading a book" is incorrect. I don't think that I have ever read anything put up on NTBW (even my own stuff) that does not have this incorrect dangling participial phrasing at the end of sentences.

[1]  "-ing" or "that" or "there"  - English language must use these repeatedly.

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Re: List of No-No words

I would contest that words ending in -ing can indeed be set off by a comma at the end. "I left the house, wondering what the sound was," or "He was in the library, reading a book." Even if it is barred by a technicality somewhere, it is so commonly accepted and expected that it wouldn't matter anyways. This is similar to how conjunctions are now commonly accepted at the beginning of sentences. "And, sometimes, it isn't so bad."

And lol yeah a few of those words are good, but they can still be overused. Everything is always glinting off of everything in my mind lol.

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