I just finished reading a good story with interesting characters. The story plot was strong. Unfortunately, the author “furrowed” the brow of many, if not all, the characters. This word, used repeatedly, finally became an inevitable distraction. It’s okay for a writer to furrow a brow occasionally but mix it up. There are many synonyms: wrinkled, creased, crumpled, lined, wrinkly, rutted, crinkly, puckered, crinkled, rumpled, crushed.
Another word used repeatedly in this same book (at least a dozen+ times) was “broken” to describe relationships or a character’s psychological health. Synonyms: wrecked, fragmented, shattered, cracked, smashed, damaged, ruined, destroyed, faulty, malfunctioning, defective could have replaced ‘broken’ to mix it up and keep the writing fresh and inventive.
Don’t feel bad, Anne-Marie, we all do it. A good friend, beta reader/s, or editor saves us from ourselves. Saved from certain words slipping into the descriptions and dialogue over and over. But what if we don’t have any team and have to rely on our own editing? Here’s what you do: Highlight your entire book, right-click on ‘find’, a,’ and type in any word you suspect you’ve been redundant with. A good editing program will highlight the repeated word throughout your manuscript so you can go to each word and make your correction. Now you can change that repeated word with a synonym listed in your writing, Thesaurus program.
“The last thing one knows in constructing a work is what to put first.” Blaise Pascal
“Writing is not a calling; it’s a doing.” T. Sugarek
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JH. Trust that you will never run out of ideas and will never paint yourself into a corner where you cannot find a solution (even if it is a start-over). A blank page is the most formidable adversary. Just write. Fixing it later is so much easier. Write what you know, but only research as far as you need to tell your story. Write about what you want to write about. Chasing a market trend will a) date your work into obsolescence and b) force you to write about something without your heart, which will show. Writing what you care about will show, and your readers will see this and love your work for it.
