# Specific writers who overuse certain words **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944 "2008-10-14T20:24:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/1 "2008-10-14T20:24:52Z")
Just finished Ben Black’s Quirke books Christine Falls and The Silver Swan. A decent couple of books - nothing I’d particularly recommend, but better than most airport fare. However, one thing drove me crazy. The man used the word “incongruously” about five dozen times per book. To the point of serious distraction. Any other specific words you’ve noticed that seem overused by certain authors? ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/2 "2008-10-14T23:21:39Z")
If you ever read _Unintended Consequences_ by John Ross, you’ll likely be struck at his fondness for the word, “relentless.” Also, I don’t recall where I saw it, but someone posted a drinking game of certain words used by Stephen R. Donaldson in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/3 "2008-10-14T23:33:34Z")
Oh god I can’t believe I’m confessing this. Laurell K Hamilton. Every fucking thing spills. His hair spills over his eyes, her necklace spills out of her shirt, the moon spills over the landscape, the salt spills out of the shaker. When I was still reading these it drove me insane. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/4 "2008-10-14T23:36:28Z")
Stephen R. Donaldson is the poster child for this thread. Vitriol, carious, febrile, etoliated, there are more but I forgot - somebody gave him a thesaurus for Christmas one year or something. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/5 "2008-10-14T23:38:00Z")
> [@sinjin](#): > > Oh god I can’t believe I’m confessing this. Laurell K Hamilton. Every fucking thing spills. His hair spills over his eyes, her necklace spills out of her shirt, the moon spills over the landscape, the salt spills out of the shaker. When I was still reading these it drove me insane. It’s mostly hair. Nobody ever cuts their freaking hair so it can all spill somewhere. Oh, and be all alive. I quit reading several books ago, though, so maybe somebody got a haircut and some normal-looking hair, and stopped buying their clothes at Pirate Whores 'R Us, but I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2008, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/6 "2008-10-14T23:39:58Z")
Preston and Child are fond of “a high keening” and “scrabbling for purchase”. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/7 "2008-10-15T01:54:42Z")
Robert Jordan. Sniff. Snort. (In a couple of places, give “a sniff that bordered on a snort”.) Smoothen skirt. Channel _saidar_. Lather, rinse, repeat. (And yet I keep reading) ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/8 "2008-10-15T01:57:32Z")
Everyone’s stomach twists in Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars novels. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/9 "2008-10-15T01:58:54Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Stephen R. Donaldson is the poster child for this thread. Vitriol, carious, febrile, etoliated, there are more but I forgot - somebody gave him a thesaurus for Christmas one year or something. I’ve cited this before, but in case anyone missed it: [The Well-Tempered Plot Device: Nick Lowe](http://news.ansible.co.uk/plotdev.html) “Clench racing” "The rules are simple. Each player takes a different volume of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and at the word “go” all open their books at random and start leafing through, scanning the pages. The winner is the first player to find the word “clench”. It’s a fast, exciting game – sixty seconds is unusually drawn-out – and can be varied, if players get too good, with other favourite Donaldson words like wince, flinch, gag, rasp, exigency, mendacity, articulate, macerate, mien, limn, vertigo, cynosure… It’s a great way to get thrown out of bookshops. Good racing! " ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/10 "2008-10-15T02:16:07Z")
Nick Hornby fell is love with the words “postal district” after _High Fidelity_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/11 "2008-10-15T02:27:50Z")
Another game is to find authors who _avoid_ certain words. Elmore Leonard admonished writers to just use the word “said” and be done with it, but writers before and since have shunned the humble, useful verb, most notably Rex Stout, who constantly had his characters snap, bellow, hiss, murmur and spit dialogue (only two of which actions are even possible). Not to start an argument, but you can play thf OP’s game with J.K. Rowling with overused _paragraphs_, let alone words. ---
**Author:** ![shimmery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@shimmery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shimmery)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/12 "2008-10-15T02:37:18Z")
Oh, this drives me nuts! Tom Wolfe (especially in I Am Charlotte Simmons) with “shanks and flanks” … and it’s so especially icky. Also “BANGO!” Don’t kill me, but… J. K. Rowling - everyone’s always wincing and muttering under their breath! ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/13 "2008-10-15T02:48:56Z")
Ayn Rand: _bromide_. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/14 "2008-10-15T03:06:44Z")
H.P. Lovecraft, “cyclopean,” “non-Euclidean.” ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/15 "2008-10-15T03:11:27Z")
> [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](#): > > Another game is to find authors who _avoid_ certain words. Elmore Leonard admonished writers to just use the word “said” and be done with it, but writers before and since have shunned the humble, useful verb, most notably Rex Stout, who constantly had his characters snap, bellow, hiss, murmur and spit dialogue (only two of which actions are even possible). Well, this goes along with the gratuitous adverb: “X looked cautiously out the window, as Y and Z stepped furtively across the street. Z carefully called out X’s name, while Y nimbly collected his thoughts. Soon, police sirens jarringly sounded throughout the neighborhood…” Some writers think that to write well you have to attach an adverb to every verb. If you choose an appropriate verb, it’s often not necessary. But I agree, there’s no reason to shun “said” on principle, and use verbs like “murmur,” etc. That’s just so obviously desperate. Actually, you can just use quotation marks, and in context, the reader knows who’s speaking: “Where were you last night at 10:00 pm?” Detective Smith asked. “Where I always am at that time–the pool hall.” “And who else was there with you?” “The usual people. You can ask them.” Smith became annoyed. “Can’t you give me some names?” ’ Ect. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/16 "2008-10-15T03:17:03Z")
In Angela Carter’s books, everyone who is rich is compared to Croesus. Rich as Croesus. Also, I noticed in Mercedes Lackey’s books that she is fond of the expression, “The thought is parent to the deed.” It’s a weird expression to overuse, and I always get this mental image of the word “thought” shaped to look like a pregnant woman, giving birth to a tiny “deed.” ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/17 "2008-10-15T03:25:15Z")
Stephen Crane repeatedly used the word “ejaculated” as a synonym for “said.” It was giggle-inducing at first, and later got annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/18 "2008-10-15T07:18:27Z")
George R.R. Martin refers to every other face or facial feature as “pinched”. I have no idea how to picture this! So-and-so has a pinched nose. His wife has a pinched face. Her son has a pinched brow. And they’re all wearing boiled leather. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/19 "2008-10-15T07:42:34Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Stephen R. Donaldson is the poster child for this thread. Vitriol, carious, febrile, etoliated, there are more but I forgot - somebody gave him a thesaurus for Christmas one year or something. I rather suspect that’s what \*caused \*the problem. 😃 ‘_Etoiliated_’, by the way, causes me particular problem; I invariably read it as ‘_exfoliated_’. This rarely improves the sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2008, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944/20 "2008-10-15T07:47:18Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > Preston and Child are fond of “a high keening” and “scrabbling for purchase”. Oh, I don’t know about all that. I’ve read all of their books - not just the Pendergast ones - and don’t really recall thinking that at all. I demand cites! 😉 Joe [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/specific-writers-who-overuse-certain-words/467944.md?page=2)