My upstairs neighbor Alexandra, who is a big fan of my books, recently read one of my newest titles, Cassidy Lane. She told me she loved it, but she'd also lost track of how many times in the story Cassidy "walked home slowly." I thanked her for her honesty because I hadn't noticed my tendency to overuse that phrase.
Neither had the developmental editor.
Or the copyeditor.
Or the proofreader.
But my neighbor had, and it bothered her, and that's what matters, right?
Yes!
Lesson learned.
Some repetition is fine, but too much can annoy your readers
We all have our pet phrases in both the spoken and written word, and we will always have them. The key to growing as an author is to identify what they are, then either A) stop using them so much, or B) use the "find" feature in Microsoft Word to replace them with something else. My friend Alberto, who loves to read early drafts of my books, once pointed out how often my protagonist "bit her lip." Now when I'm tempted to use that expression, I hold back. (Apparently I've moved on to "walked home slowly.")
What do you do if you aren't even aware of your pet phrases? This is where your friends and beta readers can help you. I know from personal experience that friends often want to help out, but they admittedly don't have the skill set to provide the type of constructive feedback you need. Or they don't want to hurt your feelings by being critical of your work. However, many of those same people would be delighted to read your manuscript with an eye for over usage of particular phrases.
My neighbor is the perfect example of this type of reader. Perhaps I will email her the draft of my next book, then walk home slowly to my apartment.
-Maria
Maria Murnane is the best-selling author of the romantic comedies Perfect on Paper, It's a Waverly Life, Honey on Your Mind, Chocolate for Two, Cassidy Lane, and Katwalk. She also provides consulting services to aspiring and published authors. Learn more at www.mariamurnane.com.
This blog post originally appeared on CreateSpace.com. Reprinted with permission. © 2015 CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.
Oh, and reading it aloud. Makes all the difference. You can "hear" it.
I agree, beta readers are excellent for this. I also find that - and I know everyone says this - if you put your story down for a few weeks before editing, you pick up errors and repeated words more efficiently.
Mine is: "he frowned" or "she frowned." My characters are frowning a lot!
When I edit for others, I bring it to their attention. I call it their "crutch words and phrases" because they rely upon them so much. I'll highlight the words or phrases that are repetitive using the find/replace tool.
The crutch phrases tend to be idioms, so you may want to look out for those in your writing.
One thing I've noticed when it comes to "crutch" words is that the writer will use them regardless of who is talking. To me, that's a giveaway because the characters do not have a distinct voice of their own, so they sound alike, and when they sound alike--they sound repetitive.
But you're right. You need a fresh pair of eyes (or several pair) to help point this out, and if/when they do, thank them because when you highlight your text and see how often you've repeated a word or phrase on a single page, if that doesn't wake you up, nothing will.
Maria, I do that with words I notice and recently "in fact." But hadn't thought of phrases. Thanks for the tip. A great idea and your neighbor is a find.