When I’m editing my next novel, one of the things I look for are word repetitions. Here is a perfect example of what I mean:
Marla took the printout from Keri. They’d better head over to Liam’s house while the day was still young. Later, he’d be busy getting ready for his charity event. She fumbled inside her purse and took out her checkbook.
“I appreciate your getting this information for us,” she told Keri. “How much do I owe you?”
Keri gave her a warm smile. “My rate is discounted to twenty dollars an hour for new clients. This didn’t take me much time at all, even though Liam keeps his home address private. So let’s call this a complimentary visit. Any referrals you can make my way would be appreciated.”
“Are you sure? You gave up your free time to meet with us today.”
“No problem. I had a few things to catch up on this afternoon anyway.”
“I appreciate it. If you ever come to Palm Haven, stop by my salon. I’ll return the favor.” Marla put away her checkbook and rose.
What word did I repeat? I used “appreciate” three times. Here is the revised version:
“I appreciate your getting this information for us,” she told Keri. “How much do I owe you?”
Keri gave her a warm smile. “My discounted rate for new clients is twenty dollars an hour. This didn’t take me much time at all, even though Liam keeps his home address private. So let’s consider it a complimentary visit. Any future referrals you can send my way would be welcome.”
“Are you sure? You gave up your free time to meet with us today.”
“No problem. I had a few things to catch up on this afternoon anyway.”
“That’s generous of you. If you’re ever in Palm Haven, stop by my salon and I’ll return the favor.” Marla put away her checkbook and rose.
Look for these types of word repetitions when revising your work. This is separate from a read-through where you try to pick up snatches of dialogue that repeat conversations between your characters. Often when you’re writing chapter-to-chapter, you lose track of what’s been revealed. Your editing sweeps should help you cut through the clutter and expose these faults. So be diligent and comb through your work as a detective might comb through his list of suspects.
My editor was great at spotting these when I had not caught it in my own edits. Still, I ran some words through my “find” and located over 100 uses of the word “long” in the manuscript after the edits were complete. Amazing how we skim right over, but readers can get annoyed. I’m still working on those. Thanks for sharing Nancy.
Self-editing software such as http://www.smart-edit.com/ can also help to find these word repetitions. Even our editors can pass them by sometimes. And we all have favorites we overuse, like “just.”
I love Smart Edit for catching the repeats I don’t know about (every book seems to have different ones). Plus, it finds overused phrases–the book I’m reading now could have benefited from someone catching “mile a minute”), adverbs, possible misused words. I do that before I send the manuscript to my editor to make things easier on her.
Yes, it’s a handy and useful program.