Tags
Overused Words, Overusing the Word Got, Strong Words, Weak Words, Words and Phrases to Avoid, writers, writing, writing tips
Once I discovered sneaky little words, such as the word “that,” littered my novel, I have been on the look out to see if there are others like the rascal “that.” I ran across The Guide to Grammar and Writing site sponsored by the Capital Community College Foundation. It gives us a page titled “Avoid Problems Created by These Words or Phrases.”
I decided to test my manuscript against the 40 pieces of advice and was smugly confident in myself as I went down the list. That is, until I arrived at Number 13:
Got – Many writers regard got as an ugly word, and they have a point. If you can avoid it in writing, do so. I have got to must begin studying right away. I have got two pairs of sneakers. My novel was free of the words and phrases listed in Numbers 1 through 12, but what about the word “got.”
Thanks to Microsoft Word’s “Advanced Search and Replace” function, much to my chagrin, I used the word “got” a whopping 96 times! I changed all but a handful of “got-s” and wow, what a difference. For example:
I got to the appointment an hour early.
I arrived at the appointment an hour early.
I flew in on my broom an hour early for the appointment.
I am going to work my way down the rest of the list. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
Do you have any other sneaky little words I should know about?
Photo Credit Kira Nichols – How cute is that!
Robin Coyle 
Then I realized that I didn’t have a margarita. “I got to go get a margarita” I said.
If you are going for margaritas, I “got” to go with you!
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 13 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 12 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 11 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 10 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 9 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 8 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 7 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 6 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 5 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 4 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 3 « Robin Coyle
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words « Robin Coyle
Genius book mark!
Adorable.
The “got” word is definitely one of my pet hates. Thanks for posting. Pam
I didn’t know it was MY pet hate until I read it 96 times in my manuscript!
Excellent, but challenging. HF
I find the “to be-s” especially tricky to get rid of.
96! Wow. It’s so easy to make these sorts of slips. Glad I don’t write novels 🙂
Yes, it is a curse!
Sometimes these are unavoidable if you don’t want to repeat words in close proximity. I like to think of a writen peice as having a rhythm and if it flows nicely then the actual notes don’t matter as much. The odd got or that won’t worry the reader if they don’t disrupt the flow.
Don’t spend too much time focusing on an individual tree – sometimes you have to step back and look at the wood. No one ever enjoyed a book because the language was perfect – they remember the story and characters far more.
And sometimes “got” is the right ugly word to use~!
I can’t even write a comment with out a typo
I could going in fishing for them all, but then I would get caught up in the editing phase again and I promised myself I would move forward if it killed me. Getting the gots out might be the death of me.
Every time I think I am finished editing the damn thing I find something else to fix, delete or add!
Oh, I know how you feel. In fact I bet everyone does. Do you think there is a book whose author reads and thinks “That is perfect” ? I bet there isn’t !
That is why writers are known to be heavy drinkers.
Not using ‘got’ is something that our English teacher at school used to really drum into us. She used to say it was such a lazy word because you could just use it all over the place to avoid having to think of a better word “I got up, I got dressed, I got my breakfast, I got in the car, I got to work, I got on with my project…” so that’s one word that I don’t think I do use (except in dialogue as mentioned) because I really notice it.
The word that I tend to overuse, not in fiction but in non-fiction, is ‘so’. My day job is at a university and I sometimes have to write reports or information guides, and ever since somebody pointed out my overuse of ‘so’, I always use the search function to find them when I’ve finished writing. Most times I can just remove them without needing to replace them with another word.
Yup – “so” was another one I overused. Now they stick out and it is “off with their head” in soooooooooo many places.
This is marvelous. So far we have: to be, got, that and then. I know I don’t like using that because I used to see it all the time and it would be grind on me. But I MUST check. I’ll be using this list and adding to it if /when you continue with these sneaky little words. Great idea. Thanks for putting it out there, Robin.
BTW, LOVE the image too!
The creator of the bookmark has them for sale. I’m going to order them for my book group!
I will continue to add to the list of words/phrases to avoid and will share as I find them.
To have got to purge mine too.
I have nominated you for the sunshine award. It’s a nice gentle thing. It hardly hurt at all. http://introvertedblogger.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/the-sunshine-award/
Ha ha! Thanks for the nomination! I have GOT to post about it today!
A very similar problem is using “to be” constructions instead of more direct verbs. For example, “She’d have to be able to work with them” is better as “She’d have to work with them.” Or “Michael was dominating in the backcourt” is better as “Michael dominated in the backcourt.”
Now, let me go check my manuscripts for “got” ….!
Yes – I worked on the “to be” trap as well. Sometimes that one is hard to get around.
Let us know how many “got-s” are in your manuscript. I am curious!
Ouch. There are 155 in a 75,000 word draft. At least 137 of them are in dialogue. Something else to fix when it’s back from my beta reader!
If you see Joe’s comment below, using “got” in dialogue adds a certain grittiness. Thanks for being brave enough to share how many “gots” you flung around your book.
It’s a very solid point on the word got. Personally, I only try to use it in dialogue, namely to give it that ugly authenticity. I’d rather write that and not have every character break into a Shakespearean soliloquy every time.
The few “got-s” I left in had the right “punch” for the moment. Your Shakespeare analogy for taking out all the “that-s” is perfect!
It’s simply an old fear of mine. Back when I started writing, all of my characters had super prim and proper dialogue, even when it didn’t fit their context. I can’t believe how silly it was even now.
My prim and proper, republican-version-of-Hillary Clinton, Auntie, told me, when I was about fourteen, “Never use the word ‘got’ it’s such an ugly sound in your mouth.” She still has issues, but I rarely use “got” thanks to her nowadays. 🙂 Who makes these rules? Probably the English, it’s always the English telling us what to do…. 🙂
I think I’d like to meet your aunt! I bet she hates a preposition at the end of a sentence too!
Oh my gosh, do I do that!? Ha ha ha. I appreciated her corrections 🙂
‘Then’ I did this… ‘Then’ I did that… ‘Then’ I flew back home on my broomstick… lol. This is really useful, Robin, thanks for sharing! 🙂
I did a ton of “then-ing” as well. I even took out a needless “then” in this post.