#Editingtip: Kill Your Echoes

No matter how many words you know in the English language, you’re bound to use a handful over and over again. I’ve never been so aware of this as the hours tick down to the release of my first book, The Pursual. These words can become echoes in your story – words that jump off the page to the reader. And not in a good way. Some words will always disappear when a reader sees them. Think of he, she, says, said, a etc. Those words are used so often in the English language that they aren’t special anymore. We don’t notice them in a sentence most times.

Echoes are words that haven’t achieved that ‘disappearing’ status and thus stand out when you read them. When they stand out, they pull the reader from being in the story, making her blink and say to herself, “Didn’t he just use that word a few paragraphs ago?”

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