User blog:SoPretentious/Selected List of Overused Words

There has been quite a few deleted stories on the wiki lately, I feel like this wouldn't happen if the writers took the time to learn proper punctuation, spelling and word choice. Also, if the writers wanted to make an interesting story, then it wouldn't seem like it was written in fifteen minutes. There has been some great ones lately, don't get me wrong, but there's also been some disasters.

That's why I'm writing this blog, I feel like there's one very difficult topic to try to help other people with, and that is word choice. I've recently thought of a way to do this. I think that after reading this, hopefully the next time you're going to write a story, and you're about to use one of these words, maybe you'll reconsider. Word choice alone can make or break a story. If the reader becomes tired of reading common terms/phrases, he or she is much more likely to lose interest, in an otherwise great story. Before I begin, let me give some context.

"Stare" has 4,900 matches out of 11,580 total pages on the wiki. "Gaze" has 1,500 matches. "Peer" has 900 matches. "Gawk" has 70 matches. "Ogle" has a mere 10 matches.

Each of these words has a very similar meaning, and they don't have multiple meanings like "glance" for example.

Do you see where I'm going with this? While coming up with slightly less common words, the number of matches show just how overused some words are. So, here we go:

 A Little Information  Each word has 1,000 or more matches on the wiki. I searched multiple simple words and the average number of results for those words was about 500. The list is selective based on words that matched too high a number of pages in my opinion. I'm not trying to say that a pasta with any single word is too trite, but for reasons of comparison, I think this is an interesting topic.

Commonly Overused Words


 * 1) Suppose (2,000 matches) VS Presume (200)
 * 2) Assume (1,600) VS Deduce (70)
 * 3) Apparent (1,700) VS Ostensible (19)
 * 4) Notice, meaning to take notice (5,300) VS recognize (1,100) VS Focus (700) VS Discern (200)
 * 5) Notice, meaning a memo (5,300) VS Bulletin (30)
 * 6) Generic (1,300) VS Standard (400)
 * 7) Area (2,200) VS Region (300)
 * 8) Create (1,400) VS Fabricate (300)
 * 9) Simple (1,500) VS uncomplicated (0)
 * 10) Wait, meaning the interim (4,700) VS Delay (200)
 * 11) Wait, meaning he waits (4,700) VS Linger (400)
 * 12) Tear, meaning to rip (3,100) VS Shred (400) VS Cleave (30)
 * 13) Tear, meaning cry a tear (3,100) VS couldn't find one except for crying.
 * 14) This is weird, Cry also has (3,100) VS wail (400) VS Bawl (100)
 * 15) Hold (3,500) VS Retain (200)
 * 16) Decide (4,700) VS Select (400) VS Surmise (40)
 * 17) Shock (2,400) VS Jolt (400) VS Consternate (9)
 * 18) Illness (3,100) VS Affliction (100) VS Ailment (30) VS Malady (25)

Let's start seeing some higher numbers on the right side of this, the stats will become old (damn, I could've said obsolete), but I plan on continuing this later.