J. Michael Straczynski, when writing the various Babylon 5 episodes, always had something going “straight to” hell, or some hideous creature that was “straight from” hell.
He had other words and phrases that he used all the time, but they escape me at the moment.
I only read the first Wheel of Time book, but to keep myself alert, I began a tally on the inside front cover of how many times food turned to ashes in someone’s mouth.
First time I read it, I took it literally and thought there was some evil magic afoot.
In all of Harry Turtledove’s books, whenever a tank explodes, it “brews up.” Whenever anybody smells food, their mouths “instantly fill with saliva.”
Turtledove’s characters agree with each other a lot. But they can never just say “Yes” or “That’s right” or anything simple like that. They’re all required to use some convulted variation of “Well, I’d say you’re wrong, but I’d be a liar, on account of I think you’re right.”
And yet I enjoy his books quite a bit, in spite of that.
The moon is always “gibbous” in Lovecraft’s books. It means “nearly full”.
Neil Gaiman (writer of the “Sandman” comic) wrote an interesting parody on Lovecraft’s writing style and his penchant for “spooky” words in a short story called “Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar”.
It’s not a word per se, but he has used this to death in several of his novels. He writes of a character doing something in the past tense like “Not if he could help it, that was.” Y’all ever noticed that?
William Boyd loves to use “farinaceous” and “rebarbative” meaning IIRC “Having a mealy or powdery texture” and “Tending to irritate; repellent” respectively.
Very unusual words but they feel good to say. He also likes ridiculous names for characters such as:
I’ve been re-reading William Gibson’s “bridge trilogy” (Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow’s Parties) and am now chuckling each time he uses the word “lozenge”. He’s up to, if I recall correctly, seven times, and I’m halfway through ATP, so there might be more.