Young Writers Society

"Sighed".

Like, as in, "It's so hot in here", she sighed.

It could be overrused. Sometimes I overruse it. XD

... I'm just gonna say that I hate all adverbs because they're horrenously dumb. See what I mean!

As Mark Twain said,

"Substitute "Damn" every time you are inclined to write "very". Your editor will delete it and your writing will be as it should be."

That's the only good thing I learned in Creative Writing class. The rest was all "Said is Dead" and stuff.

I hate adverbs too.

"Questioned" just to be different and avoid using "asked" as in:

"How did the test go?" he questioned.

I once read a book that, as good as it was, irritated the heck out of me because the author hardly ever used "asked"

I have a phobia of the word 'defiantly'.

... possibly because of the many FanFics I have read with incredibly bad spellers who actually mean to type definitely. *shudders*

Needless to say, I stop reading once that crops up in the first sentence.

Nothing else is really taboo [for me]. Apart from 'nice'. 'Nice' is bad.

I hate when I see something like "laughed grimly" or "smiled grimly". I mean, it just makes the character so badass, doesn't it? Oh wait, no.

Skywards. As in, "rolled her eyes skyward" or "moved his eyes skywards" - or anything like that! Aghhh! They're rolling their eyes, nothing more! Stop trying to make it sound more poetic than it actually is. Even worse is when they describe the eye colour with something like "chocolate" or "sky-blue". Bleh. Pet peeve.

"Substitute "Damn" every time you are inclined to write "very". Your editor will delete it and your writing will be as it should be."

GASP!

That was in writer's digest. I think. Or in some writing article that I've read before. But I'm pretty sure it was in Writer's Digest.

THAT.

Whenever I'm reviewing a piece, the word 'that' always sticks out to me. I cross out every one, and it is so much nicer without.

Humongous.

I know it's a real word and it's legitimate to use in serious writing, but I've heard it said by little children WAY too much when they're describing things..."Sarah, Sarah, I just saw a HUMONGOUS spider!!!) ...let's just say the word has totally lost its charm. It seems too childish for a serious prose, in my opinion.

The word "special" and "nice" irritate me a bit. But I'm pretty much relaxed about everything else when it's not my own writing. To each his own. But any word used in excess in a single piece of work can be an annoyance.

I don't think there are any words that should be banned from writing - that's just absurd to me. If it's in the English language, it's fair game. But I do think there are certain usages that weaken prose.

Describing something indefinitely really bugs me. This usually happens with "almost" and "perhaps."

i.e.

"She was perhaps a little sweaty as she walked through the door, and Jon thought that she almost looked as if she had been running from a rhinoceros."

Those kind of passages just make me go... what? It kind of has the same effect as very, but in the opposite direction. She's either sweaty, or she's not, or she's running from a rhino, or she's not. Make up your mind, man.

I like this topic; there's several words I think should only be used once or not at all in a story. Those include 'Very', 'So', 'Suddenly', 'A Lot', 'Almost' and a lot of the cliche words. I forgot 'Ain't'. Ain't and Very are on the top of my list. Ain't because its not really a conjuction of anything, whereas I don't see how people think its a word. My Dad, whose from the South, uses it just to tick me off. When we go visit family in Tenessee and Kentucky and I hear it from everyone, I have to restrain myself to not go off on a wild rampage and start yelling about all the other annoying words they use, ain't being the first one. Very simply being because its overused. In 6th grade, I used Very a lot because I needed a story for class to take up an entire page (I hate being forced to sit down and write at a certain time, with having a time limit; the stories always come out like an elementary kid wrote them.). She went back and told me to never use Very more than once in a paragraph or something. Ever since then, I've had issues with that word.
Lyn, you bring up a good point. Those kinds of sentences get annoying and fast. You could have cut that sentence in half and you'd have made it easier for people to follow. I have the same reaction and have to look at the sentence for a few times before I can decipher it.

"Was"

Was should be taken out the back and shot. Twice. Just to be sure.

Was is so passive. It distances the reader from the action and it shows that you can't put the reader in the situation, instead you are reduced to explaining. Which doesn't reflect well on you as a writer...

And "again"
It just shows that the writer can't show that the thing is happening another time, instead they have to tell. Which is boring. end of story.

On a side note: I like the word consume ie. Guilt consumed her every thought. and therefore use it FAR too much. I used to have a list of words that I overused and would go through my work to make sure that I hadn't used them unnecessarily or more than once or twice.

Snoink wrote:My earliest teachers hated the word "pretty" and "nice." Therefore, I used them an obscene amount for FREAK. XD

The word "ejaculated" should never be used to indicate dialogue. Ever.

I know what you mean. Me, being a perverted teenager, laughed my head off when you said "ejaculated." **Snorts.** Okay, I'll promise I'll stop. **Bursts out laughing again.**

But seriously, I have to agree with you. Anything associated with a male's genitals should not be associated with speech. I'm sorry, but that's just wrong.