An Automatic Cliché Spotter
Love this! The blog GalleyCat spotlights a new, free tool that automatically spots cliches and overused words in one’s writing:
“All writers have favorite words, cliches or phrases that they lean on like a crutch when writing. Without the help of an editor, you might miss the words that repeat—they are so familiar, you don’t even notice them. This simple program will check a variety of common writing mistakes, including how often you use your favorite word or repeat dialog tags like ‘she said.’
SmartEdit scans your finished novel or your work in progress and highlights areas that might need closer attention. It runs five individual checks, such as highlighting words or phrases marked by you for monitoring, counting the different dialog tags you have used, and searching out over-used phrases, words and cliches. It’s not a word processor—its sole purpose is to assist you when you edit your work, much like a grammar or spell checker.” Read more here.
What words do you use over and over? I probably overuse “interesting,” “engaging,” and, of course, “brilliant.” 