{"id":290,"date":"2014-03-17T13:24:31","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T18:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/?p=290"},"modified":"2014-03-18T17:43:19","modified_gmt":"2014-03-18T22:43:19","slug":"word-abuse-accentuate-your-bad-habits-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/word-abuse-accentuate-your-bad-habits-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Abuse: Accentuate Your Bad Habits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/bart-simpson-generator2.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-302\" alt=\"bart-simpson-generator2\" src=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/bart-simpson-generator2.gif\" width=\"657\" height=\"352\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m in the throes of heavy editing at present, still trying to hammer out a process that works best for me.\u00a0 If there&#8217;s one thing I&#8217;ve learned thus far, it&#8217;s that even after you think you&#8217;ve gotten your prose as pretty as it can possibly be, there&#8217;s <em>something wicked <\/em>lurking in there to which you&#8217;re completely oblivious.<\/p>\n<p>One example is unintentional repetition of certain words and sentence structures. I didn&#8217;t know it until recently, but I abuse the hell out of <strong>[&#8230;], and [&#8230;]<\/strong> and <strong>[&#8230;], but [&#8230;]<\/strong>.\u00a0 See?\u00a0 I even did it just now, two sentences ago.\u00a0 It&#8217;s not something to completely eliminate from the manuscript, but (ugh!) multiple times in the same paragraph is a no-go.\u00a0 The sentences all start to sound the same, and (crap, not again!) the prose turns boring.<\/p>\n<p>Let me be clear: in a first draft, it doesn&#8217;t matter.\u00a0 Get your thoughts down, however they come to you.\u00a0 It&#8217;s while you&#8217;re editing that you have to worry about this stuff.<\/p>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t know you&#8217;re doing it, how can you avoid it?\u00a0 You need more eyes on your manuscript, human or mechanical.\u00a0 My spouse alerted me to the and\/but problem.\u00a0 At first I was skeptical, but (!!) when I went back and looked again, I was shocked at how bad it was.<\/p>\n<p>Even the best beta reader can miss things, though.\u00a0 That&#8217;s when I turn to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.autocrit.com\" target=\"_blank\">AutoCrit<\/a>.\u00a0 You need a paid membership to use it, but (shoot) I deem it money well spent.\u00a0 Among many other things, AutoCrit can highlight commonly overused words, and (sigh) recommend how many of those repetitions to remove.\u00a0 This is Autocrit&#8217;s default word list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0&#8220;ly&#8221; adverbs<\/li>\n<li>that&#8217;s<\/li>\n<li>look<\/li>\n<li>maybe<\/li>\n<li>had<\/li>\n<li>have<\/li>\n<li>was\/were<\/li>\n<li>gerunds (&#8220;ing&#8221; verbs) at the start of a sentence<\/li>\n<li>conjunctions (ex. and, but) at the start of a sentence<\/li>\n<li>could<\/li>\n<li>feel\/feeling\/felt<\/li>\n<li>hear\/heard<\/li>\n<li>it\/there<\/li>\n<li>knew\/know<\/li>\n<li>see\/saw<\/li>\n<li>smell\/taste<\/li>\n<li>watch\/notice\/observe<\/li>\n<li>just\/then<\/li>\n<li>that<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you have a Professional account, you can set up custom searches.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t, so I can&#8217;t add &#8220;, and&#8221; and &#8220;, but&#8221;.\u00a0 However, now that I know I have this problem, I can go into Scrivener and perform a find on a scene, chapter, or manuscript (CTRL+F, for those who love keyboard shortcuts as much as I do):<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/scrivfind.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-287\" alt=\"scrivfind\" src=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/scrivfind.png\" width=\"626\" height=\"232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/scrivfind.png 626w, https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/scrivfind-300x111.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 626px) 100vw, 626px\" \/><\/a><em><small>I use the &#8220;whole word&#8221; option just to be safe.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I click Next through every instance found.\u00a0 For each one, I manually highlight it in orange, my color for flagging repetition.\u00a0 If I see too much orange in any one location, I know I need to rework what&#8217;s there.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, this <em>is<\/em> pretty tedious.\u00a0 I&#8217;ve not found a way in Scrivener to say, &#8220;Find all occurrences of &#8216;XXXX&#8217; and highlight them.&#8221;\u00a0 If anyone knows how to do this, please let me know!<\/p>\n<p>If you happen to use MS Word, a one-stop mass formatting is easy:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Hit CTRL+H to bring up the Find and Replace window.<\/li>\n<li>Type the word\/phrase you&#8217;re looking for in both the Find What and Replace With boxes.<\/li>\n<li>Click the More button.<\/li>\n<li>Click inside the Replace With box so your cursor is blinking there, then click the Format button.<\/li>\n<li>Choose whatever formatting options you want.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure your choices appear under the Replace With box (ex. &#8220;Format: Highlight&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li>Click the Replace All button.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/wordfind.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-288\" alt=\"wordfind\" src=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/wordfind.png\" width=\"560\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/wordfind.png 560w, https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/wordfind-300x248.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><em><small>The only time I will ever admit Word is superior at something.<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I utilize a rainbow of highlight colors in my manuscript.\u00a0 This is my own personal system- I&#8217;m not saying it&#8217;s what everyone should do, just that it has served me well so far:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\">Yellow<\/span>: &#8220;Needs work.&#8221;\u00a0 Stuff that&#8217;s not yet in sentence form, or a word I don&#8217;t like that I want to replace with a better word later.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Orange<\/span>: Repetition, excessive use of pronouns, words\/phrases I overuse.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #339966;\">Green<\/span>: <a href=\"http:\/\/quizlet.com\/4053670\/subordinate-clause-words-flash-cards\/\" target=\"_blank\">Subordinate clause words.<\/a>\u00a0 Rewriting these can be rewarding in terms of crafting more interesting sentences.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t look to eliminate every single one, rather ensure they don&#8217;t get out of hand.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">Pink<\/span>: Stuff I&#8217;m considering deleting.\u00a0 I like to give myself time to decide whether it truly deserves the axe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My manuscript looks like a paintball massacre, and (GAH) I often have to comb through and re-highlight after a round of editing, but (I give up) the eventual result is prose that&#8217;s more deliberate and varied.<\/p>\n<p>I used to be a technical trainer for all of the MS Office products.\u00a0 If you&#8217;re interested in more fancy Word tricks, let me know!\u00a0 I&#8217;m not as deadly with Scrivener, but I&#8217;m also glad to post what I know about it, if so desired.<\/p>\n<p>Are there any words\/phrases you abuse?\u00a0 What tricks do you have for dealing with them in your editing phase?<\/p>\n<p><!-- Place this tag in your head or just before your close body tag. --><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/apis.google.com\/js\/plusone.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><!-- Place this tag where you want the widget to render. --><\/p>\n<div class=\"g-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/106756336697302613382\/posts\/axaeMc9Wvfn\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m in the throes of heavy editing at present, still trying to hammer out a process that works best for me.\u00a0 If there&#8217;s one thing I&#8217;ve learned thus far, it&#8217;s that even after you think you&#8217;ve gotten your prose as pretty as it can possibly be, there&#8217;s something wicked lurking in there to which you&#8217;re completely oblivious. One example is unintentional repetition of certain words and sentence structures. I didn&#8217;t know it until recently, but I abuse the hell out&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/word-abuse-accentuate-your-bad-habits-2\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,8,11,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice","category-editing","category-ms-word","category-scrivener","category-software-tips-and-tricks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions\/307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}