Watch for Words That Wear Out Their Welcome

As I was proofreading Bamboo Harvester for about the 12th time, I noticed that I used the word “Well” to start a sentence twice on the same page during a conversation between two characters. I deleted one of those usages, discovering the sentence read perfectly well (sorry about that) without it.

Then I got to thinking, I wonder how many other times I started a sentence in a conversation with “Well” in this book. I typed “well” into the “Search in Document” bar at the top right of my document and was mortified to realize I had done it at least 100 times over the course of 400 pages.

I went back through the entire manuscript and eliminated about two-thirds of those usages. I left it in only when I felt it make sense to do so, usually due to the character needing to hesitate somewhat before he spoke. I have a tendency to verbally start sentences that way, especially if I’m stalling in order to figure out what to say, so it’s natural that I would use it frequently in a novel. 

For a moment, I was happy I had improved my book by eliminating a lot of those unnecessary usages of “Well.” But then it dawned on me that I had probably done something similar with other words. I started reading my novel with that thought in mind and came up with several other words I had grossly overused.

One was “that.” I’m embarrassed to say how many times I used that word. (I just did it again.) I was able to eliminate about 50 percent of the usages of “that” just by skimming through the novel. Another word I found myself overusing was “absolutely.” Don’t ask me why… I just did. I got rid of a bunch of those “absolutely” usages as well. Darn it, I just used “well” again.

But the lesson here is not to eliminate the usages of overused words, but rather to cut back. Read through your manuscript at least one time while looking for words you overuse, then figure out which usages you can get rid of. If you can take out the offending word without changing the meaning of the sentence, do so.

But if you think you might be confusing the reader by taking it out, then leave it in. Better to have a couple of “well’s” or “that’s” in the same sentence than having the reader scratching her head, trying to figure out what your sentence means. 

Even a word such as “the” can be a culprit here. It’s OK to have many usages of “the” in your novel, but there are times when it’s easily taken out. An example would be, “Both the Cubs and the White Sox are hoping to make Chicago proud next baseball season.” The first usage of “the” in that sentence is crucial, but the second usage is unnecessary.

Your overused words will probably be different from mine, but “the,” “that” and “well” can get you started in this quest. Sometimes less is more when it comes to words.