Editing: Using Words Too Often

My editor returned Mistletoe Everywhere for edits. She didn't make that many changes, which means that I sent in a pretty clean copy, but every manuscript can use some improvement.

As I reread the story, I found that I use some words too often.

I didn't see them when I wrote the manuscript. Probably a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. But now, all those repeats glare back at me.

No one will notice "a", "and" or "the", no matter how many times you repeat them. Nor will they notice pronouns or "he said" or "she said", although you should use those tags as little as possible.

I'm talking about words like "turn", "face", "head", "place", and "look". Aarg! Using them once in a page is fine, but using them in two succeeding sentences is a no-no.

I search in Microsoft Word (my manuscript is a Word file) and write down the pages of all the occurrences of each word. Then I go back and rewrite sentences where these troublesome words occur too close together. And, lo and behold, the sentences sound better.

Ah, editing. What a wonderful process.

Thank you all,
Linda

Welcome to The Sweetest Romances's Scavenger Hunt

Welcome to everyone participating in The Sweetest Romances's Scavenger Hunt.

The Scavenger Hunt is part of tonight's chat with guest Loree Lough at http://sweetestromancechat.blogspot.com/2009/06/welcome-to-our-chat_9789.html

If you want more information on The Sweetest Romance, please visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Sweetest_Romance/

For those who want to cut to the chase, my clue is bar, and the next blog on the list is http://jdp-news.blogspot.com/

Since today's post is part of a scavenger hunt, I decided to do some searching about the word "bar". I like words. I like reading their meanings and their derivations. In my stories, I want the best word to fit every sentence. I may not always succeed, but I do make an effort.

Today's word is "bar". What is a bar?

dictionary.com lists 36 meanings, from

"a relatively long, evenly shaped piece of some solid substance, as metal or wood, used as a guard or obstruction or for some mechanical purpose: the bars of a cage."

to
"a barroom or tavern"


to

"the legal profession",

and various others in between. Its forms include nouns, verbs, prepositions and idioms.

The word is old, as most of the basic English words are, and dates from the 1200's, from the Middle English "barra" rod.

Have some fun sometimes, finding all the different meanings of the everyday words we take for granted.

Whatever definition you choose, "bar" is the word you're searching for in the Scavenger Hunt.

Good luck!

Thank you all,
Linda