It happens.  We all do it.  You get a favourite phrase or word and before you know it your MS is full of it.  Mine when I first wrote The Arrival were grin, smile, neat and lots others *lol*.  Those all being words I tend to use (or things I do) constantly.  So how do you avoid ending up with those words that in the long run make your readers grit their teeth in annoyance.. There's lots of ways!  Obviously a thesaurus is helpful but you do want to be careful that your readers don't need to use the dictionary when reading your work.  It can be rather … [Read more...]