Happy Holidays! A few more days until Christmas!
Based on Bria Quinlan’s motivating blog entry, I’ve decided to create my own Word Notebook. Most of the time, I use 1000 Verbs to Write By via Deanna Carlyle. But now I’m biting the bullet to use the notebook to see how it will improve my work.
Phase 1: Overused words hunt
Using a demo of heal-a-doc
OK, so I ran the demo and now I have a list of my overused words. A few of them I expected to see while some other ones reflected the popular crutch words I used at the time.
Manuscript #1 (Top 5)
1. Really
2. Very
3. Issues
4. Whatever
5. Beeline
Manuscript #2 (Top 5)
1. Really (I’m sensing a pattern here. LOL)
2. Suddenly
3. Very
4. Whatever
5. 24/7
Manuscript #3 (Top 5)
1. Really
2. Whatever
3. Focused
4. Suddenly
5. Issues
I think I really use the word really too much. I mean really, the word is a junk adverb but hey sometimes I need to get a point across and really fits… Ok, point made. Point learned.
OK, in a few days I will tackle the next step in building the notebook–searching my favorite books for new verbs, nouns, and phrases. (I hate such pleasurable research.)
I love that you were sensing a pattern!
It's a great tool isn't it? Did you like HealADoc? I find myself sucked into playing on it a lot the last rounds of edits.
Hope it's helpful!
bria
Heal a doc is nice! Now I need to get off my butt and add the words I loved into the notebook. Which is rather hard when on is in the middle of enjoying a book.
Shawntelle