I’ve reached one of my very favorite parts of the revision process: Word Search! Yes, I like to think of it as a game.
As I revise the manuscript for flow and meaning, I make a list of overused words or sentence constructions.
My list always starts with the same few words: some, big, new, just. The usual suspects.
Then I pay attention to words I see popping up frequently. The list for this draft includes:
- Remember
- Might (Too many sentences began “You might”)
- Simply
- Show up (that was new to this manuscript)
Next I look for punctuation marks that indicate stylistic choices I’d like to keep under control, like:
- Exclamation points: I use them online all the time but they are less welcome in books.
- Parentheses: My first drafts default to way too many parenthetical asides
Revision word search
For each of the items on my list, I do a global search to find out how many times this word or punctuation mark appears in the manuscript. I write that down as my starting point.
Then, I go through each occurrence and decide whether I should rephrase it or let it stand. My goal is to reduce the number by a substantive amount. For words I find annoying or dull, I shoot for a higher percentage reduction.
Here’s are a few of my results so far:
Some (which also appears in somewhere, someone, etc.): Trimmed from 101 to 41 occurrences.
Might: Changed from 163 to 40!
Exclamation points: From 30 to 20. That’s a high number for a book, but this manuscript has many informal asides and dialog, so I’m clinging to 20 of them. We’ll see what the copyeditor lets slide.
Parentheses: I search for the opening mark, but delete the complete set. I brought it down from 170 pairs to 130. Some need to be there, like parentheses in the end notes. I may try to pare this down further.
Different: Reduced 55 occurrences to 17. (I am proud of that one! And look, I’m using both an exclamation point and parentheses. You can see my problem.)
Why do I love this stage of revision?
- The end is nigh. This process only happens after I’ve worked through the manuscript for content and flow, so I’m pretty far along in the process.
- Bite-sized sessions. I can tackle one or two words on the list, then do something else.
- Accomplishment. It delights me to see those repetitions drop, and know I’m making the writing better.
The game has its challenges. In changing over-used words, sometimes I swap in a new word, only to realize that I’m now using the replacement word more than the original! That happened to me when paring down “new”—I realized that “different” now appeared 55 times and I had to fix it, too.
Also, going quickly I introduce more copyediting problems, like missing words or extra spaces. So I will still take a clean-up pass before handing this off to the copyeditor.
Is it really necessary?
Probably not. I don’t ask all of my authors to do this kind of revisions—although, if I see them way overusing a word, I’ll ask them to the number of occurrences in half.
But it’s part of my revision process, and I’m sticking to it!
The Field Notes series
This is part of a series of behind-the-scenes posts on the making of the 10th Anniversary Edition of The Writer’s Process, starting at the completion of the rough draft and continuing through publication. Follow along if you’re interested in the myriad decisions an indie author/publisher makes.
