Talk About Looking Back

I decided to see what the most used word was in each story I wrote, for shits and giggles. I ran The Long Road through Word Counter and got a piece of abstract poetry.

Jesse, Tony

Andrea said back

Look, just go

Ask around down

I know, get road town

Don't turn door

Fuck time!

What did sheriff one-something

Over hand think happen?

It didn't

It goes on like that. Pure nonsense. The site filters out the little words like "the" and "it" leaving us which largely nouns and verbs. Trying out different stories gives me similar results. Typically the top few spots are character names, followed by, as in this example, "said," "back," and "look."

I had hoped for more interesting results. I don't know, like something more indicative of the style and content of each story. But no. It just tells me that I use those words way too much.

On the subject of "said," some people say you should spice up your dialogue tags with more descriptive words. Shouted. Whispered. Enunciated. Meanwhile, a whole crowd of others say to leave it at "said," because your dialogue tags are supposed to fade into the background. So who the hell knows.

"Back," I don't think I can do anything with. I think a lot of it is things like, "A looked at B, then back at C." Maybe people do that too much. Maybe I should stop describing where everyone's focus is, trying to control them like an overbearing director.

Which brings us to "look." People look around and at things so much. It's a problem, I know it is. I kind of remember reading somewhere about how you shouldn't describe your character sensing things, you should just describe the things. So instead of, "She could smell the salt in the air and see seagulls overhead," it should be more like, "Salt lingered in the air and seagulls circled overhead." These are just examples. It could also be something much better.

The trouble I run into is when I want the character to focus on something. Like the above example, where a character's focus shifts between two different characters or things. It's probably because in my head, my stories are so visual. I see them like movies. So you have your establishing shot that gives you an overview of the area, then the camera focuses on the important thing that your hero is about to go for. You don't just pan over the scenery and have your character stroll purposely toward something you're hoping your audience noticed as being important in your drive-by.

Or maybe you do. I don't know. Maybe I'll try that. Just describe a setting, but not what's important in it, and have people do shit in that setting, but never explicitly state where they're looking. That could be a fun exercise. Let's do it.

I've got writing to do. I'll see you Wednesday.