More Words and Phrases To Avoid
I said last week that adverbs are for cheats. So are the following words and phrases (and many more). We need to use the right words, but many writers let recycled images and phrases that don’t mean anything to anyone into their work. Synonyms are great, but you should almost need to make up phrases to show what you’re getting at. If you don’t need to do that, why bother? What will make your story different? If you’re relying on something as pedestrian as plot, try harder.
Partial list:
to wit
like a glove
auburn
apologetic
frantic
he/she often
as soon as my/his/her head hits the pillow
finally
I was ____ when ____ happened. (Third person variation is okay in some circumstances).
utter
cosmic
surveyed
perused
chuckle/chuckled
chortle/chortled
OK, I have a confession to make. I used an adverb in a piece that was just accepted for publication. To serve in my defense, the word is used as a double entendre, so it’s working in my opinion. But on second thought, I probably could have cut it without loss.
I don’t recall ever using the word cosmic! LOL!