Hear my Thesaurus ROAR!!

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Of all the tools available to a writer, my favorite is the Thesaurus. It's my best friend for writing like IKEA is close to me for renovations and decor. My favorite, my beloved, my (checks Thesaurus) my treasured. My PRECIOUS!

I'm doing edits on 'Chasing Monsters' and it's getting quite a work out. While I am conscientious about using different words to describe things, (weapon, sword, blade, katana...) every novel I seem to find certain words I gravitate toward. And overuse.

I keep these words in mind in the first edits if I see them too often, and make a list. Then, when it comes to second edits and formatting the master copy, I check them off as I change them, or place an 'X' next to it if I kept it. I'm not finished yet, but here's some embarrassing totals.

Squeezed-19 found. Four kept.

Flutter-11 found. One kept.

Ached-22 found. Three kept.

Warmth-17 found. Four kept. (Hey, it's set in October. Heat is VERY important!)

There's more, but they're not as bad. Other favorite done-to-death words include, chill, blurred, roar, watch, gentle, followed, trepidation  and the tired phrase "Poor so-and-so."

I know there's a program for this, but I'm old-fashioned and I trust this method. I've taken to leaving post-it tabs with the word on it in the pages for easy access, and the binding is breaking. At this rate, I'll be asking for a new synonym dictionary for Christmas. Just in case you didn't know...'synonym dictionary' is what you'll find if you look up the word 'Thesaurus' in a Thesaurus.