Overuse of the word “that”

oh heck. I did a "that" edit back in the day. Just for... that... word.

Limned. I want to use it every paragraph and must restrict myself to twice per book. Connective phrases (which, except, but, therefore), which belong in academia but not so much in fiction. Also, so. And, conjunctions. In general, quantifier phrases infect my writing (to a certain degree). ;-)

Not mine but one of my CPs has a tick for the world purled. It's a great word but... again, limited use.

I usually edit as I go along, instead of amassing a bunch and edit sometime later. My pet peeve is writing two or more conjunctions in one sentence. I do my best to edit them out.

Always putting commas, where they don't need to be, or when I should be starting a new sentence, some of my work ends up as a string of four, or five of them, before I edit.

At least "that" is easy to resolve.

My heart keeps sinking when I see the extent of how much filtering I need to correct.

I noticed that I do this a few years ago, and it drove me crazy (I somehow never realized it before then). I did a clean sweep of all my writing and exorcised it wherever I could. Now I seem to have more or less kicked the habit, fortunately. That (nugh) was my major one, otherwise I overuse "then", definitely. I start sentences with it - but only in fiction. It isn't nearly as bad as what I did with "that", and only happens here and there, but I still can't help but notice it.

I've never heard of the "that" rule before, but going through a couple of my stories, I'm finding it to be a problem, LOL.

The biggest one for me now is "sighed." My characters are constantly sighing, to the extent that they sound all like a bunch of bratty teens. That's not how I mean it. It's more like the "eh," or "ugh," or even "ih." That brief exhale you sometimes make before you decide to get moving or agree to something? Yeah. It's sort of a tell, that if one of my characters sighs, the reader is nearing the end of the conversation.

Sometimes it seems I have something of a problem with the word, "some," or words containing "some." Somehow, there must be some kind of way to stop.

I don't share this "rule" about that. It's a pacing tool for your sentence that changes the way it's read -- sure, it can be considered a filler word, and sometimes filler words are unnecessary, but sometimes they are useful. That puts more emphasis and let's the preceding word sink in before the modifier following that is introduced.

Consider this:
I think that your face is ugly.
I think your face is ugly.

These sentences have a different feel to them. The latter is tighter, but also conveys a slightly different meaning. The first one let's the reader suck in the word think, putting emphasis on it, while the latter puts emphasis on the latter part, the ugly face. Because there is no sentence stress in writing, that is an important word for creating it and can function like italics or bold font, so you don't have to overuse those two.

"That" is one of Those Words for me too. I've been working on it for a few stories now, so I'm getting better with it as I'm writing.

I don't really look for words, per se. I have to be aware of how many times the characters smile in a page, sometimes within a paragraph. Every novel gets some kind of gesture/expression that I used endlessly that I have to trim out. Never fails, and it's always something different.

I also go over each scene as I finish it to catch that kind thing. Trying to do it in one lump sum is far more daunting than I'm willing to deal with.

Every novel gets some kind of gesture/expression that I used endlessly that I have to trim out.

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I know you can search for instances of a certain word manually within a manuscript - but is there any software that runs a check of the words you use most frequently, without having to individually search for what you think is suspect? Like a word cloud generator, but something less visual and more practical? (My writing software of choice is like an old pair of jeans from the grunge era, comfortable, trustworthy, completely out of date. )

I have two scripts that I find helpful for finding over-used words and phrases. The first, I wrote to help with indexing and found it useful for editing. It counts the number of times each single word appears, each two-word sequence, three-word sequence and so on. Then it spits out a report listing the words and sequences in descending order of frequency with the counts.

It's useful, but it doesn't capture the entire picture. I wrote another script to spot what I call "clumps," using the same word frequently in a small area of text. Using "address" 20 times in a 60,000 word text is nothing, but when "address" appears 5 times in 3 paragraphs, it grates. I use both scripts when I am editing.

They are not a replacement for a human editor, but they help. I imagine there are similar (and easier to use!) tools available commercially, but I get a kick out of writing them for myself.

DeleyanLee said:

I don't really look for words, per se. I have to be aware of how many times the characters smile in a page, sometimes within a paragraph. Every novel gets some kind of gesture/expression that I used endlessly that I have to trim out. Never fails, and it's always something different.

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Oh, this reminded me of one of my books... where I swear I use the words "sigh", "sighs" and "sighed" at least twelve dozen times. My main character seemed to be majorly depressed, needless to say.

Enlightened said:

My pet peeve is writing two or more conjunctions in one sentence. I do my best to edit them out.

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On the other hand, polysyndeton is legitimate and time-honored rhetorical device.

Polysyndeton performs several functions. Not only does it join words, phrases, and clauses, bringing continuity to a sentence, but it acts also as a stylistic device that brings rhythm to the text with the repetition of conjunctions in quick succession. It is also employed as a tool to lay emphasis to the ideas the conjunctions connect.

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So maybe some of those multiple conjunctions could stay.

blackcat777 said:

I know you can search for instances of a certain word manually within a manuscript - but is there any software that runs a check of the words you use most frequently, without having to individually search for what you think is suspect? Like a word cloud generator, but something less visual and more practical? (My writing software of choice is like an old pair of jeans from the grunge era, comfortable, trustworthy, completely out of date. )

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I'm not aware of any. Honestly, I wouldn't use it if there was.

I know the reason I do this is because I'm a slow writer, so, for me, there's been days/weeks/months between the last time I wrote something and the next time I wrote it. But for the reader, it's about 3 minutes of reading, so it's tick tick tick--always happening. The best way for me to catch it is to just read it and mark each time it happens naturally, as a reader. Sometimes it irks. Sometimes it works. A program isn't going to be able to make the distinction on each case.

I know you can search for instances of a certain word manually within a manuscript - but is there any software that runs a check of the words you use most frequently, without having to individually search for what you think is suspect?

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Yep Grammarly and ProWriting Aid both do that. If you want to check them out, Pro Writing Aid has a limited free web version. They produce little reports on a plethora of things.

I personally find both programs too overwhelming (seriously, they make me anxious about my habits!) but my CP finds it very useful for exactly what you mention (overuse of certain words and phrases). She also creates a document of words she tends to overuse and refers to that when revising, I believe.

Scrivener has a word frequency feature.

"That" and "just" are two huge pet words of mine. My characters also walk around grinning and shrugging and smiling and laughing like a bunch of lunatics in the first draft.

My initial bug words were 'that' and 'and'. I thought 'that' was needed. It appeared way too often, and the 'and' habit forced me into unnecessarily long sentences.

Touch wood- those two habits have gone, but there's always others that creep in.

I went through the "that" purge recently. Also "just" - although I make sure to include it in dialogue sometimes.

I have a problem with shrugged. He shrugged. She shrugged. Everyone shrugs!

'That' is a word I only recently realized I overused, and now I'm sensitive about it. Is it really all that necessary? See, there I go again! Trimming down superfluous or repetitive words and phrases is part of revision. My characters tend to snort an awful lot, and sigh, and chuckle softly. Haha. They do tend to sound like lunatics in a first draft.

Carrie in PA said:

Scrivener has a word frequency feature.

"That" and "just" are two huge pet words of mine. My characters also walk around grinning and shrugging and smiling and laughing like a bunch of lunatics in the first draft.

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^^^I can totally relate to this! lol.

Quiet Melody, I'm beginning to think that the problem with smiles and nods and maybe even shrugs is that we're using them as shorthand. What kind of smile? A warm smile? A smile of understanding? A smile that barely hides impatience?

Eye rolls--not so much. Readers tend to understand most eye rolls. Still, you might try differentiating. Your character might have developed an entire vocabulary of eye rolls while you weren't looking.

I still fight with the same word. I have eliminated the majority of its use on the first drafts but still manage to find many more to remove when editing same with "which". Another word I have to be conscious of is "but/however/nonetheless".