I found this report interesting and thought it would be of interest to other writers here abouts.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101231/lf_nm_life/us_banished_words

I think the worst I've ever heard is when a friend actually said 'LOL' out loud in substitute for 'That's funny.' That's when I knew text abbreviations were getting out of control.

I sometimes wonder if politicians understand that they all look like complete idiots when somehow they seem to twitter or text each other the buzz word for the subject of the day, and all appear on different news channels using the same buzz word. Then montages are made of them all saying the same word over and over. I'd rather them use sharp, concise, logic on me, rather than believing some moronic hypnotic catch phrase will get me to side with them. Any chance we can keep the phrases and banish the politicians instead? No, well it was just a thought.

W.

I'm sure Failblog is sad that they are now banned.

http://www.lssu.edu/banished/uh_about.php

The very worst are those who crusade against new words. Like King Canute, they set up their thrones on the beach and command the tides of linguistic change to stop.

There are only three faults in writing truly worth condemning:

1) to write about that which we do not understand or haven't thoroughly examined;

2) to exploit the inattention or ignorance of the reader;

3) to obscure our meaning, either accidentally or intentionally.

These faults have corresponding virtues:

1) to have thoroughly imagined or thought through what we want to say;

2) to engage the imagination and reason of the reader;

3) to write clearly.

I don't see clichés per se as a big problem. The big interrelated problems I see are laziness, pretentiousness, and lack of clarity. Those come from the three faults I listed above. The problem is the writer who wants to carry a reader to a conclusion without doing the work of engaging his imagination and reason. Clichés and catch words are only a problem if the writer is salting a half-baked effort with the magic pixie dust of linguistic fashion. If a cliché hits the nail on the head, use it, I say.

There's a fault I see in manuscripts which is the fraternal twin of lazy word choice. I call it "hard sell". Hard sell is telling readers what to think without envisioning what is to be thought in detail. On example is using adverbs to decorate dialog tags (e.g. "he said angrily"). Well conceived dialog makes most adverb use on tags superfluous.

Another related problem I see is the failure for characters in manuscripts to speak or act in an emotionally convincing way. That is because the writer hasn't imagined a reasonable response in the scene, and hopes the reader hasn't noticed. Just like the lazy writer who reaches for a cliché, the emotionally tin-eared writer bulks up his scene with semantic fluff. The exercise of good word choice helps a great deal with this problem. Does the character feel "shame" or "guilt"? "Happiness" or "joy"? "Malice" or "loating"? "Fear" or "anxiety"?

I also hate when authors have a somewhat less-than-common word that they use often within a novel. Specifically, I read a Teddy Roosevelt biography that used the word adroit more than ten times and it really started annoying me.

I guess what I'm trying to say is a writer also has to careful not to out cleaver his/her own writing by just believing of course the readers are going to understand the emotion of their MC by their complex well structured paragraph, and grammar proper dialog with 'he asked, she said' at the end of them.

As for over used words. It doesn't really matter to me. As writers it becomes part of the job to broaden vocabulary. So you can't blame a non-writer for enjoying the functionality of common catch phrases. I personally don't like texting unless its a situation where I can't talk or hear, but I discourage my friends from texting when they could call. I don't like how impersonal it is, and I feel it has become a tool of laziness or avoidance. I really don't like when I'll be sitting with a friend and they'll be talking to me and at the same time having a text conversation with someone else. If you want to see me get irritated fast, that will do it. The only exceptions are talking with there kids, there boss, an emergency, or maybe - if their text buddy is the president, but otherwise put the phone down or stop wasting my time.

2cents,

Actually, I think they have a point about some of those words being overused.

But I noticed W, used another over used phrase that probably isn't on the list.
I didn't read the whole list. But I thought the idea was interesting especially for those of us doing the query challenge.

However changing the topic slightly wordcaster gave me two thoughts. No not with what he said but with his user name. Number One, I may change mine to another one I seriously considered putting on a business card if I ever sell another story. Actually, come to think of it there's two I've considered. The first one isn't that original even though I haven't seen it used much.

But the second idea is that I have been trying to come up with a new term for Wizard, especially for my UF. Not Mage even though I've used that, not magician or any of the other well known terms. Word Caster might be it or something close. It gives me a whole new area to think though. Thanks.

But seriously. I think clichés have their pros and cons. Take, for example, the sentence: "Matt turned as white as a sheet." Suppose you want to lose the cliché. Is it better to write, "Matt turned the color of spilled milk across alabaster tile"? Or "Matt's complexion rivaled that of a newly opened Easter lily"?

If, in trying to avoid a cliché, you overstretch and reach into the absurd, have you not done worse? Often, using a cliché can speed the reader on without distracting him by forcing him to ask, "What the heck are they trying to say?" If I can tell the writer is trying too hard to be original, then I lose faith in him.

Don't try to impress me with your ability to reinvent what has already been said well enough. Tell me the story I want to hear, and don't rely on tricks like that to win me over! I guarantee you, readers see through it.

If you want to spend your time trying to describe the color of Matt's face in a way it has never been done before, go be a poet, for heaven's sake.

W.

quote:

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Epic failure. LOL!

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Epic internets meme fail. You never spell out "failure" unless you're trying to sound old and/or n00bish. 1337 grammar police FTW!

quote:

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W. does that mean you no longer need to know to what I was referring to?

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LD - I assumed you meant either MC for Main Character or texting for text messaging? But I have been known to be wrong on many occasions.

W.

Note - I edited that previous post on the extremely rare chance I ever get famous. It might be interpreted wrong.

But the over used words in your case were 2cents.

I assume, my turn and like you have been known to be wrong, that was short for just my two cents worth.