Jenn's World

I'm word-counting a chapter a day to see what my most common words are and recording them here, for fun. The word-counter isn't 100 percent accurate and it lets you exclude words like "a" and "and". You can find the counter here.

I'm being inspired to do this because I listened to an old Writing Excuses podcast which recommends writers get rid of the word "very" while trimming their stories. It's a bad modifier, much like "awesome" in my opinion, saying something while actually conveying nothing specific to the reader. How many very's did I have, I wondered. It turns out more than I thought. While most of them were in thought bubbles or dialogue and meant to add voice, some of them were not. They mostly got snipped. I wondered, what others words have infiltrated my writing? I know I use puppet/doll metaphors a lot because dolls freak me the heck out. Don't ask me why. They're just so...creepy.

So what are my 200 most common words in the Godsplay prologue are: Cien (84), Byranon (24), one (22) -- really???--Cien's (21), Eyes (19), said (19), Elenor (17), felt (17), father's (16), father (16) -- huh, surprised they're the same--king (14), sound (14), face (14), Leirmin (14), Dead (13), didn't (13), blood (12), against (11), thought (11), hand (11), hands (10)--another weird coincidence--head (10), looked (9), lips (9), away (9), throne (9), over (9), stared (9), instead (9), back (9), death (8), red (8), ears (8), never (8), dark (8), just (8), son (8), light (7), skin (7), left (7), off (7), died (7), though (7), feet (7), forehead (7), touched (7), through (7), neck (7), long (7), library (7), couldn't (7), I'm (7), again (6), stone (6), wet (6), hair (6), brothers (6), "you (6)--quotations seem to screw up the small words excluding subroutine--fell (6), Lomari (6), trembling (6), floor (6), burned (6), time (6), feel (6), turned (6), shadows (6), around (6), greasy (6)--after I saw this, I changed one of the instances to 'slimy'. Oddly, the word greasy rarely appears in the rest of my book, just in the prologue--room (6), look (6), saw (6), still (5), knew (5), people (5), hear (5), heard (5)--another weird coincidence, or something with the program?--Almone (5), nothing (5), white (5), chancellor (5), old (5), Sa'hana (5), know (5), fingers (5), whispered (5), open (5), broken (5), knees (5), air (5), life (5), god (5), quickly (5), mouth (5), together (5), Leirmin's (5), made (5), bones (5), human (5), tried (5), help (5), thin (5), wall (4), much (4), prince (4), part (4), seeing (4), tonsure (4), son's (4), keep (4), doors (4), last (4), hit (4), somehow (4), forced (4), inside (4) --hey, somehow forced inside is almost a real phrase!--king's (4), struck (4), emperor (4), falcon (4)--usually together, so no duh--body (4), hot (4), ever (4), backward (4), want (4), touch (4), hung (4), knife (4), it's (4), pressed (4), fire (4), because (4), world (4), mother (4), baby (4), bare (4)--wonder how this thing does tie-breakers, anyway? It's not alphabetical--way (4), corridor (4), laughed (4), down (4), how (4), Sathain (4), under (4), across (4), me" (4), pain (4), end (4), without (4), Nikael's (4), scream (4), love (4)--interesting contrast--wave (4), enough (4), throat (4), words (4), voice (4), stomach (4), years (4), rapier (4), lay (4), serve (3), going (3), seen (3), shouted (3), begged (3), flesh (3), beauty (3), dry (3), gone (3), ceremony (3), probably (3), come (3), rose (3), dance (3), remembered (3), next (3), arms (3), same (3), monsters (3), burning (3), shoulders (3), green (3), "do (3), sickly (3), power (3), land" (3), "Cien" (3), taking (3), boy (3), behind (3), something (3), pulled (3), watched (3), hope (3), right (3), loved (3), soft (3), he'd (3).

Phew. Anyway, what I learned from this exercise today is that I describe a lot of body parts. And that, when I'm Cien's POV/voice at least, I use the word one a lot. And greasy...

PS: I think I figured out where some of my root hatred of Arwen came from. As a young girl, Eowyn (not sure on spelling) was my favorite character. A cross-dressing princess who kills the Lord of the Nazgul? How is that not so freaking cool! Eowyn is at the root of my childhood embrace of feminism. So I was always annoyed that she didn't end up with Aragorn. Sure, the pretty elf girl gets all the guys. What about those of us who go slogging our guts out in the blood and gore of Pelennor Fields? Huh? HUH?

Tomorrow, I give my 13-year-old cousin the Dragonlance chronicles for his birthday. Do you realize it's been 25 years since Dragons of Autumn Twilight was published (at least my paperback version, anyway)? It's quite possible that the series is too dated for him to enjoy. Fantasy has evolved so much since then, and Y.A. books too, becoming much more complicated.

Speaking of which, Tuesday is the Wheel of Time spectacular!!!! YEAH!!!

Also, I will have a post on Monday about using character to build worlds and plots.