Overused Words | Scott Myers

Overused Words

Writer and blogger Bish Denham came up with a helpful post:

In revising and editing much is said about over used words or words to avoid. In my struggle to revise I realized I wanted/needed a list. In fact, I thought I had one, but I couldn't find it. I scoured the Internet and asked Angela at The Bookshelf Muse if she knew of a list. Even she had trouble finding anything complete.

Well...after quite a search I have compiled the following list. It is for the use of any writer who needs it. Copy it, if you want. I'm going to dedicate a "page" to it. If you have any additions please email me and I'll add them.

Here is the list from A-E:

a lot
absolutely
actually
all
almost
although
always
amazing
and
anxiously
any
as (particularly starting a sentence)
awesome
awfully
bad
beautiful
because
be
been
being
began
begin
believe
better
big
boring
bring
but (contrasting)
by
cause
certain
change
chiefly
choose
could
could have
crossed
decent
definitely
eagerly
easy/easily
effective
emphasize
end
energy
enjoy
entire
especially
even
every
excellent
exciting

You can see the rest of the list of overused words here. There are two that make my skin crawl: look and walk. They are such flaccid verbs and in my view are the main reason why God invented the thesaurus (S/He did, didn't S/He?).

Instead of look: eye, ogle, glare, squint, leer, gaze, peep, scan, rubberneck, glance...

Instead of walk: amble, shuffle, hustle, trip, leap, sprint, cavort, stumble, tiptoe, plod...

Words are our friends! Use them and use them well!

What other overused words would you add to Bish's list?

Scott said...

Further explanation about "look" and "walk." Sometimes they are the appropriate word. However after years of reading scripts where writers use those two words over and over and over and over again in their scripts -- as if those are the two default words for the act of eying something or physical movement -- I have pretty much gotten annoyed by them.

To me, they cut against the grain of what I call imagematic writing which is where a writer uses strong verbs and vivid descriptors to convey a sense of what's happening in the moment.

Remember: Script readers hate scene description. Why? Because it slows down their reading process. Therefore as screenwriters, we must do whatever we can to make our scene description as engaging and entertaining as possible. Even simple word choices -- verbs and descriptors -- can make a difference.

So if you'll excuse me, I have to walk... er... lumber away from this thread to look at... um... peruse some more comments.

Go Into The Story: Overused Words

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Random Thoughts: Over Used Words | Bish Denham