A few weeks ago I tweeted about this article on copy blogger: Are Vampire Words Sucking the Life Out of Your Writing? www.copyblogger.com/vampire-words/

It’s worth a read if you’re a writer because I think all writers have their own vampire words they need to watch out for. This is where a critique partner comes in really handy. They can spot these words that you over use, and words that drain your writing. (No pun intended.)

As far as finding over used words, I’ve heard from other authors that you should only use “rare” words once every hundred pages or so. I’m pretty sure Sarcophagus would be a “rare” word, depending on your story.

I use a program called yWriter (it’s free) and it gives me a list of all the words in my book, and how many times I’ve used those words. I find that really handy. Another good idea is to use the find feature on your word processor and search for common problem words, like the ones in the copyblogger article. Also, look for was -ing words. “Was running” = bad. Ran = good. Jogged = better.

All of these rules of reducing weak words became crystal clear recently. I’ve been working on a new project with Hubsters and he wrote the first round of the website copy. Who knew a man could use the words “just” and “merely” and “simply” so many times in five pages of text?

Upon reading (and fixing) those glaring issues (oh, my eyes!) I vowed to never use them again in my own writing. I should mention that to my critique partners and beta reads so they can hold me accountable.

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