IN PRAISE OF A GOOD THESAURUS – Black Velvet Seductions

When writing, have you ever found your words becoming repetitive? Or maybe stuck, looking for the right words? This has been an issue both as a writer and a reader. As a writer, I do seem to fall into the traps of writing things in the same way. I think it is all a part of your writing style, but saying the same way each time is a bit boring. I have read scenes in published books and submitted manuscripts where the story has suffered from this. One story I read had five almost identical lovemaking scenes. I think it is important to be original when approaching love scenes and not fall into cliché or repetitive phrases.

Some of the ways I have tried to counter this, in my writing is using either a thesaurus or using the synonyms feature within Word. I find it very useful for looking at alternative words, and it often suggests to me a different way of writing something. Another feature of Word is the find command. If you think you are repetitive with an odd word or phrase you can search your whole script, for that phrase.

As a reader or writer, has anyone else had this experience of repetitive text? Does it bother you? And if so any thoughts and suggestions?

I’d love to hear your comments here on the blog, the BVS Facebook page, or my Facebook page. We have a twitter page too and we are always happy to follow people that follow us.