Narrative Writing: Replacing Overused Words

All writers have "habit words". "Habit words" are words we are in the habit of using and use too often in our writing. Using a yellow highlighter reread your writing. Highlight the words that you are seeing repeatedly in your story.

Once you have the highlighted words you will use a thesaurus to decide what words you would like to change and improve. Remember, not all synonyms work for every sentence. It's important to reread and substitute the synonym in its place to see if it fits.

As you watch the video above you'll notice I didn't replace every word I highlighted with a synonym. I made the decision, as the author, to leave some of them because I felt they were the best fit for that sentence. It's also important to not choose synonyms if you don't know what they mean. Sometimes a word doesn't make sense in the sentence. Be sure to reread and choose the word that fits best.