I discovered yet another layer of revision by making a “word cloud” from my manuscript. I simply pasted my entire manuscript into the tool at WordItOut. You can easily see my overuse of certain words.
I’ve spent the last two mornings removing about half of my uses of know. Only a little tedious. I found most of them were in dialogue that I thought sounded conversational, but was merely boring, you know? Now, maybe I’ll just do that with all the rest.
Thanks to Joan Dempsey over at Revise With Confidence for the link and the insights.
Have you tried this with your writing? What did you learn?
Lorie Smith Schaefer 
That’s an interesting idea.
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It is interesting and easy enough to remedy with the “find” feature in your word processor. Now if there were only a tool to fix the plot holes.
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Wow! No, I haven’t heard of WordItOut, but I am going to start using it. What a marvelous tool. See, I knew your fiction-writing venture would be of benefit to me.
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Thanx Lori – I’ve used Wordle in the past but it requires Java and I decided not to reinstall Java when I got a new computer. I love making word clouds, so thank you for introducing me to a new site. BTW – I already like your main character, Claire.
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I like her name too! BTW we arrive in Sydney one week from today, give or take. Have to cross that dateline.
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I hope you have a wonderful time. Get lots of sleep on the plane on the way over.
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Reblogged this on Finding Myself Through Writing and commented:
What words do you overuse in your writing? Lorie show us a great way to fix that problem on her blog today. ~Elle
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Thanks, Elle! I hope others find it as useful as I did.
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I haven’t done this before, but I think it’s brilliant. I’m going to use it.
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Let us know what you discover!
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What a good idea! I JUST (like 10 minutes ago) finished the first draft of a novel (YEE HAW!) so once I’ve let it rest for a bit I’m going to try this. Sounds like a great way around my blind spots — Thanks!
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I’d like to think that reading through my draft all at once (rather than in little bits) would show me some of these. But the tool makes it so clear. Good luck!
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Oh wow! This is so interesting. I’m going to try this!
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