Tags
editing, Overused Words, Overusing the Word Certain, Overusing the Word Pretty, Overusing the Word Sure, Strong Verbs, Strong vs Weak Words, Strong Words, writers, writing, Writing Advice, writing tips
I am pretty sure for certain the words “pretty,” “sure,” and “certain” make my list of overused and often pointless words.
What do you think?
I can be pretty scary when fired up.
Don’t get me started on WordPress problems!
I am scary when fired up.
~~~~~
She sure is an excellent writer.
That is up for debate.
She is an excellent writer.
~~~~~
He kept certain words and tossed the rest.
De-cluttering your novel?
He kept the strong words and tossed the weak ones.
“Pretty,” “sure,” and “certain” were not chronic offenders in my novel, but they wriggled their way into unassuming sentences. When taken out/reworded, the passages were breezier.
Granted, not all “pretty’s,” “sure’s,” and “certain’s” are word-litter but I was surprised by how many I took out.
If you are playing along, let me know what you find in your writing.
For advice on other words that sneak into your writing, clink on the links below:
- I Have a Problem with “That”
- Sneaky Little Words for the word GOT
- Strong vs Weak Words for the word WENT
- Strong vs Weak Words – Part 2 for the word PEOPLE
- Strong vs Weak Words – Part 3 for the words THING and STUFF
- Strong vs Weak Words – Part 4 for the words GO and GOING
- Strong vs Weak Words – Part 5 for the words ALWAYS and NEVER
- Moldy Verbs, Adverbs, and Intensifiers
Robin Coyle 
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Thanks for letting me camp out in your blog for a little while. As usual, I had a great time and tried to leave my campsite as clean as when I arrived. I’ll be back!
Ooops.
My camping time spent here in your blog this morning was better than that piece of key lime pie I ate earlier while Zoey the Cool Cat was staring at me wondering where her food was.
She probably considered calling the SPCA to report you.
Pingback: Strong vs Weak Words – Part 11 « Robin Coyle
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I’m thinking many of the weak words work better in dialogue, and are things to be looked at and mostly removed from the rest of the text.
Yes, in dialogue they seem to be ok, but I still looked at them and changed a few.
Yay, Robin’s back with lots of good writing advise.
I wish I met you a few years ago…
Oh well, only strong words in the next book, ha!
I’m back! I “talked” to Askimet tech support via email and they believe they have fixed my spam problem. Whoo Hoo!
I wish I had known all this before I started writing. Going back and editing my “finished” novel is rather a pain.
I know… and to top it off someone told me there are five typos in my book. I feel like crawling under a rock, even though that was not my fault.
Many decades ago I was listening to an interview with Sir Paul McCartney. They were discussing how he writes songs and one of the things he said that stuck with me concerned the word “just.” He doesn’t use it. A couple of months later The Moody Blues released “I’m Just a Singer in a Rock ‘n’ Roll Band.” Then I understood McCartney’s meaning.
If you find “just” in a Beatles song, you can attribute it to Lennon, Harrison, or Starr.
I am a huge Beatles fan! Sir Paul is a wise man. “Just” has a way of sneaking in along with the word “even.” Now I want to search the Beatles lyrics to see if there is a “just” to be found.
I searched one time, and I think there are a couple, but if I remember correctly we now know that the songs were written by Lennon.
Good choices. You could be writing another book alongside your novel, with this advice 🙂
Ha ha! Believe me, I’ve considered it. I’ve learned a TON while finding these little gems. It would be nice to have them all in one place.
I’m keeping up with the decluttering and it’s looking pretty good. 😀
I love Spring Cleaning. Hold on to your hat for the next pesky word.
Robin, I now think of YOU when I’m writing, although sometimes later than I should. Your posts help me cultivate the good habits of reading what I’ve written with your advice in mind & taking redundant & repeated words out, to the point I wasn’t comfortable with my post yesterday even though I was aiming for conversational style. It took an effort for me to leave it as I originally intended, such is your influence 🙂
I am happy you are thinking of me! Warms my heart. My writing style is conversational as well, hence, these words sneak in unnoticed. In almost every case, I’m better off without them!
Yes, well yesterday I went back & edited out those words that were bugging me…
Atta girl! Did you like it better after editing?
I like it just the same, but now I can relax. When I type/write quickly it comes out the way I speak which sometimes reverts to “you can take the girl out of the country…” mode, and not as I’d like it if I thought about it more – there were too many “have”s & “and”s 🙂
Stay tuned. I am about to hit publish on a “have” post. You read my mind!
Okay. I finally had a chance to do this. I have 20 “pretty”s, all in dialogue, a fair amount of “sure”s, but not all in the context you’ve used it, and only 5 “certain”s. So not as bad as some of the other words you’ve raised but still some work for me to do. 🙂
Yeah, my “sure” context wasn’t the best example for how it sneaks in. But I am glad you found some words to tidy up. They are tweaks but they make a difference, don’t they?
Sent from my iPad
I KNOW I use ‘just’ a lot but shall be on the lookout from now on. I’ve started a list since your first post and keep adding to it. Can’t WAIT to see your next one after reading your comment to other reader. Thanks. This is GREAT. It makes writing so much more DIFFICULT. LOL
That makes me happy! I keep my own list and do a search for them on everything I write. Although I am compiling the list, the darn words keep showing up. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.
Hey, I think I pass this round! Only 6 “pretties” and they’re all in dialogue. NO “sures” in the context you use (and only 6 “I’m sure” uses in dialogue). And only 3 certains, which fit their context.
No “follow up email on comments” box when I wrote this comment. 🙂
Congratulations! We have a winner! Well done. My 9 pretties was reduced to 3, 23 sures down to 8, and 10 certains cut in half. The ones that made the cut needed to be there. Isn’t this like a treasure hunt?
I took the comment box off as it seemed to be an annoyance rather than a help.
Hopefully the option to remove it will not be removed in the future.
It would be just like WordPress to pull that fast one.
For me it depends on the context. There are some cases where I would use a modifier, and some cases where I wouldn’t. But as a general rule, you’re right, the adjectives, etc end up diluting the meaning.
I think about that stuff a lot more now that I’ve found your blog. For instance, I’ve edited this comment about three times. 🙂
I will take that as a lovely compliment. Trust me, I check each blog to make sure I am not using the offending word I am ranting about. Wait until you see my next post. Ouchy. Do I have a doozy to share with you!
You’ve given me some more words to check. I don’t think I use them a lot, but … You never know 🙂
Like the other words, I didn’t think it was a problem for me until I did “seek and destroy.” Not dozens but enough to make me cringe. Let me know how you fair. As I have said before, misery loves company!
So I’ve gone through the 76k and found 8 pretty and 7 certain. Considerably more sure and I’m going to wipe them out!
These aren’t chronic offenders but when they pop up, I am “pretty” sure they are not that “pretty.” Glad you are hanging with me Pete!
My word is “just”… I use it a lot in speaking, so when I’m writing dialogue, or writing as if I’m speaking (ie. in my blog), I tend to “just” to death. Getting rid of it is a bit like banning chocolate.
(And I don’t see a box to untick about follow-up comments; did you already take care of that in your Dashboard? If so, thanks… hopefully, mine is unticked for all users now.)
Banning chocolate? Oh, the horror.
I was guilty of the “just” thing too and have it on my list of words to blog about. When speaking, “just” flows out of my mouth. When writing, I nix them all!
And yes, I believe I was successful in nuking the “follow comments via email” box. Let me know if that is not the case and your in-box fills up!