Are you writing a novel? See if you’ve got these plot elements in your First Act, and follow along on my blog for Acts Two and Three.
Are you revising your novel? Here’s the first half of my checklist of overused words.
- A lot
- Again
- Almost
- And
- As
- At least
- Back
- Be
- Began/Begin
- Breath(e)
- Brow/eyebrow
- But
- Even
- Eye
- Feel/Felt
- Gasp
- Glance
- Going
- Had
- Hair
- Has
- Head
- Hear
- Instead
- Is
- It
- It is (was/would/had)
- Just
- Know
- Laugh
- Like
- Look
- Of Course
For the rest of the list, divided into the following categories…
- Adverbs / Prepositions—use in moderation
- Signs of Weak Verbs—can you make the verb stronger?
- Signs of Wordiness—cut all excess words
- Repeated Descriptions / Actions—use in moderation
- Repeated Pronouns—make sure the antecedent, the word they refer to, is clear
- Filtering Language—deliver rather than present information
- Overused by Characters / Narrator—watch sentence beginnings, especially
…click the image below.
