Most Common Writing Errors ✔️

Words I Hate

9) Look - There is nothing wrong with using this word, but the amount of times I've seen people use look like 10+ times in chapters that are less than 1k words is insane. It gets repetitive to me now and I always encourage you to find synonyms. You don't need to avoid this word like the plague or anything, just be careful not to use it too much. If you're using it 5+ times in a single chapter, I strongly suggest finding synonyms. Depending on the size of the chapter, I'd honestly argue to try and only use it 1-3 times.

10) Walk - Same as look. Not a bad word, it just gets overused. Consider using synonyms if you find yourself using it multiple times in a single chapter.

11) Adorn(ed) - Same as cascaded. There's nothing inherently wrong with this word, but it's like every writer on Wattpad saw cascaded and adorned and decided to use them. I see adorned in almost every fic I read to the point where it feels cliche and I don't want to read it anymore. It's overused and normally a sign of purple prose writing since purple prose writers in particular overuse this word.

12) Tendrils - Another case of an overused word in purple prose. Purple prose writers love adorned and tendrils, for some reason. Sleek, too, though I'm not going to put that on this list because I actually like sleek when it's used well. There's nothing wrong with tendrils, it's just that purple prose writers overuse it so much that I don't like it anymore.

13) Ubiquitous - I don't need to explain myself.

14) Cacophony - Okay, this is misleading because I like the word cacophony, the problem is too many purple prose writers use this word in the wrong way. Cacophony refers to sound. Please use it that way. I don't care about whatever metaphors you're trying to spin to justify cacophony being used to describe other things like taste, sight, touch, etc. It is for sound. If you're using it to describe other things that aren't sounds, you risk it coming off as you trying too hard to make a metaphor. There are other unique words to use for the five senses, so that's why I don't like seeing cacophony used to describe things that aren't sounds. I like it when it's used properly, though.

15) Meticulously - Another word that's overused in purple prose in particular. I'm fine with meticulous, but when used as meticulously, I start disliking it.

16) Quickly - Another adverb that's overused. Nothing wrong with using it here and there, but most authors I see who use this use it like 5-20 times in a single chapter.

17) Opulent (or any form of it) - Yet another word overused by purple prose writers. I also just hate the way this word sounds.

18) Luxury - Another another word overused by purple prose writers, and I also dislike this word because 9 times out of 10, it's used to not describe the luxury. It'll be said that "*insert thing here* is luxurious," but the author won't show the luxury. You saying something is luxurious doesn't narrow it down at all. It's a vague, general description. That's why I suggest being more specific and showing over telling. Don't tell us it's luxurious, show us.

19) Kaleidoscope - Same reason as the last two. Overused by purple prose writers. It's fine when used once or twice in a book, but too many people use it every other chapter because they think it's pretty. Repeating pretty words just takes away their prettiness. The more you use something, the less impact it has.

20) Mirth - This is the only one on the list not related to writing. I don't care if this is used in a book, I just hate the sound of this word. Like... mirth??? That's so silly, who made that word? It sounds like you're a muppet on crack when you say it. It sounds like derp's cousin. Ew. I really don't care when I see this in a book, but when I hear it out loud, that's when it becomes a problem for me.

So those are some words I dislike for various reasons. It doesn't mean the words are bad, I just personally dislike them. I think everyone has certain words they hate and can't stand, even if there's nothing "wrong" with them. Like a lot of people hate the word "moist." I don't mind it, but some people hate it.

Yeah. That about wraps it up. Not sure how to close this out so I'll just stare at you.

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~End~

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know if you have any questions or have a specific topic you want me to cover.

Plenty more topics are coming like characters, purple prose, advanced dialogue tags, etc.

Thank you for over 2,000 followers and almost 2.1k only a week after getting 2k. That's wild, I can't believe how fast we're growing. As promised, since I got 2k by my birthday, I will release another story over the summer. To vote on what story you'd like to see, check the inline comment here to go to an anonymous form and vote!