Tags
Overused Words, Overusing the Word Stuff, Overusing the Word Things, Strong Verbs, Strong vs Weak Words, Strong Words, writers, writing, Writing Advice, writing tips
“Things” and “stuff” wormed their way into my novel when I wasn’t looking, so I bring you two more words easily exorcised from your writing are:
“Thing” and “Stuff”
We discovered the overuse of the ubiquitous “that,” “got,” “went,” and “people.” We also slashed moldy verbs, adverbs, and intensifiers from our work. If you missed these posts, click on the highlighted words above.
When I read an article saying to nuke these words from my writing, with smug self-righteousness I thought, “Those words aren’t a problem for articulate me!”
WRONG-O. I searched my manuscript and sure enough, 32 “things” and 8 “stuffs” were lurking in the corners.
Here are two examples:
My mom unloaded my things from the car.
What things?
I let my mom unload my (pick your favorite)
1. twelve hamster cages
2. melted Krispie-Kreme Donuts
3. stiletto high-heels
. . . from the car.
~~~~~~~
Mom hauled my stuff to the bedroom.
What stuff?
Mom hauled my (pick your favorite)
1. ThighMaster
2. complete collection of Donny and Marie albums
3. unicycle, fake red nose, and clown shoes
. . . to the bedroom
Again, let me know what you discover. I find comfort in numbers when I hear that other writers let words sneak in to their work. I’ll post about something fun tomorrow because if I find one more thing to edit out of my manuscript, the top of my head will come off.
Robin Coyle 
Oh, nooooooooooooooo! But I like things and stuff. It’s the purpose of life, to have more things and stuff than everyone else…………lol
Then you can have my things and stuff. I have too much.
Watchamacallit – thingmajig – thingymibob – whatzit – doohickey – these are just some of my favourite things.
Strong words indeed! I need to work the words into my manuscript.
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Robin, you sound like such a self-aware writer and I think this will help you no end as you edit your work! This has given me a lot of really useful ideas! 🙂 Thanks!
I’m so glad Katy! It has been fun to do and “people,” oops, I mean readers have had such great comments. Including you!
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 4 « Robin Coyle
I did a search of my 75k so far. I would have said those two words were not in my manuscript. WRONG 60 things and 24 stuff. WHAT?
Most of them are in dialogue, but still something to look into. Thanks 🙂
I said the same thing. “Surely not in my manuscript!” I think in dialogue you can get away with it more because you want your dialogue to reflect how people really speak.
I’m using that as my excuse 😀
It has made me think about my editing and in all seriousness you can never have enough reminders of words to watch out for so thank you 🙂
You bet. I have enjoyed doing this series because I have learned along the way. There will be more like this.
This has been such a great series. I tend not to give these things a lot of thought, but now it’s very clear that I should. Thanks, Robin!
We don’t think about it because these words are masters at sneaking in. Glad you are enjoying the series. There will be more!
I do that all the time, repeating a word throughout a piece of writing. Sometimes as well I’ll become attached to a particular line or paragraph that doesn’t do the story justice but I like the sound of it. Tricky business this 🙂
Yes indeed. Tricky business.
I am trying so hard not to repeat the same words, phrases and adjectives as I go through the editing of my manuscript, chapter by chapter. I seem to have a few firm favorites, especially negative emotional adjectives such as painful and distressing and others like heavy, lost and empty. Moving from the old reliable’s is a task in itself!!
I kept a list of words I repeated too often to keep me on track. Beautiful was one of them.
Some THINGS are unavoidable, but I thoroughly agree to get rid of the STUFF….
Yeah, I had to keep in a thing or two, but all my “stuffs” went out with the garbage.
Nice to be made AWARE once in a while. You’re doing a FINE job and I appreciate it. Old habits sometimes come back. Not good. Seek and Destroy, I LOVE that.
Have I told you lately that you are the sweetest thing ever? Well you are.
Should we all be looking out for the words AWARE and FINE?
🙂 “You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
He was brilliant. And so are you! Thanks for giving us this magical excerpt.
Good thing I’m not writing a novel, because I overuse “things” and “stuff” all the time in my blog.
Seriously, I’m learning more here than I ever learned in any official writing class.
Whoa. My buttons just busted. I think that is the nicest thing any one said about what I have to say on this blog. Ah me. I will sleep well tonight. Thank you Ms Weebles!
Ouch! 147 people, 64 things, and 10 stuffs. Most of them are in dialogue again, but there must be some better word choices. They’ve been added to the list of “things” to revise!
You are helping a lot of us do a better job of writing our novels!
No offense, but I am so glad! Not only do I have a fellow “thing and stuff” over-user, I’m glad you spotted them! Let me know how many make the cut, and how many find definition.
I think it’s time to use my find key for more than chaing the name of my villian. Great tips.
I call the find key “Seek and Destroy.”
LOL I love that. I shall call it that very thing.
Oh, boy, I just found 38 “things” and 9 “stuff” uses. Yikes. And I had a whole lot of “people”. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Something I really hadn’t thought of before!
This has been like a treasure hunt for me. Can you fix the things and stuff you found?
I’ll have to think about it when I go through my manuscript once I hear back from my editor. It is a medical thriller, so “people” is bound to come up a lot. But I think I should easily be able to make “things” more specific. Thanks again–is a very helpful tip.
That’s so weird–you left a comment asking about my editor, but it showed up on my blog on some obscure page that doesn’t exist instead of showing up here on yours. Bizarre. But in answer to your question, I’m not sure who my editor is. He or she will be assigned to me from the publisher. I should be hearing back in the next month or so.
That happened to me the other day. My reply to a comment on MY blog ended up on another blogger’s completely unrelated blog post. I am afraid she thought I was crazy. So glad you gave me the chance to defend myself! Scary WordPress, scary.
By the way, I just added you to my blogroll. Others deserve to partake in your wisdom!
Hmmm….I replied to this but where is my reply? Thanks for adding me to your blogroll. What an honor!
Yes, that comment went to some obscure place on my blog as well. But you are most welcome!
That is now the third time something like this has happened. Perhaps more I don’t know about.
I noticed that I use the words more in blog posts where I’m often being more general, but I make a conscious decision to be more specific when writing stories, and I try to weed them out.
Good for you. Specificity is key!
It is but there are often times when I go back and revise having to remove or change words that I did not spot first time through.
Hi,
I love your examples that you used, so very easy to understand, and your picture did bring on a smile. 🙂
Well thank you. Like Winnie-the-Pooh, “I am a bear of very little brain, long words bother me.”
I’m loving this series, but it makes me scared to go through my own manuscripts! haha, I’m sure I’ll be posting about my wordiness once I get to the finer editing stages. 🙂
Thanks Aly. Glad you are enjoying it. I hope I wasn’t sounding like a know-it-all. 🙂