Today we mourn the passing of a beloved friend. Steadfast in his appearance numerous times during the course of each manuscript, he proved himself most dedicated. Always wanting others to bask in the editing limelight, he unselfishly retreated behind highly proliferating dependent clauses and ten dollar words. His lean two-word stance was the salt of literature, a tandem offering so subtle he eluded the tightening police for years. He never saw himself as redundant, merely offered what he had to give. His contribution to word count will not soon be forgotten.Goodbye Mr. "his-own". May you rest in peace.
If you have an overused crutch word or writing gaffe you'd like to bury, leave it here...
8 comments:
With the departure of the Bush administration, "ROBUST" began to shrivel. He isn't dead yet, but I suspect we'll see him go soon.
However, I'm currently taking up a collection to finally kill "Maverick". I never ever want to hear that one again.
haha! good!
I don't have any particular word I tend to overuse (I don't think!!) but I tend to get caught up in what I call the "word of the day" and when I'm reading back over the previous day's work, I can usually see one that was overworked. :)
I have some words like that. What's the best way to kill, uhm, I mean help them pass peacefully away?
Stewart...I wholeheartedly agree on Maverick.
Sue...I'm always amazed that echoes can sneak in just a few lines apart. What's up with that?
Charles... MS Word's "find" feature is God's gift to the redundant. I keep a list when I'm editing of words that keep cropping up. Then, at the end, I do a find/replace.
I, too, am guilty of overusing certain words, but usually find them for corrections.
uh... too many to list :(
what pisses me off: clowns' use of 'light years' as a measure of time, rather than distance grrrrrr
lol... word verification: debriess
Let us also bid goodbye to "just" and "that."
Two words who have just gone on too long like that.
I have something against "almost". :-)
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