In the last couple weeks I’ve been working on a thorough edit of Three Parts Dead. This is part of August Editing Month; I’ve promised myself that in the month of August I’m not going to start work on another long project, and am instead going to polish the two novels I’ve finished in the last year until the Mass government can buy them for use as lighthouses.

This means slow passes through the story, re-writing of dialogue, and paying very close attention to language. A rule-of-thumb size for a novel manuscript is 100,000 words, and when writing that many words, as when running a marathon, you’re going to develop some distinctive tics in your style.

Good distance runners work the kinks out of their stride if they want to avoid hurting themselves; same with good writers. Taking this to heart, I’m assembling a list of words, phrases, and techniques I’m not allowed to play with any more (at least not until I play with some of my other toys more). Here’s what I have so far:

Immense
Just (the adverb)
for a moment
at last
vast
interrupted dialogue (“But Susan, haven’t you considered-” “There’s no time for that now!” It’s a fine effect but I use it too much.)

What about the rest of you out there? Anyone else have these in their writing?