The most used words in my novels

The other day I told someone an submission editor at a place I sent something to counted the number of “that”s on the first page and included that in the rejection now. I just remembered that I was wrong. The word he counted was “was”.

And the number was 34.

Even in this small post I already used that word three times, not counting the quoted one. And just for fun, I used the word “that” three times as well.

It got me thinking about what other words I use too much. I know I use “really” way too much when writing posts, but not so much in fiction, as far as I know. And I also use “also” and “anyhow” at least once per post, I’m sure.

Anyhow (hehe) I decided to run little report on my two longest pieces of fiction, (Holy Fudgesicles and an unpublished novel) to see which words pop up the most. Here’s what I found:

10 Most used words in Holy Fudgesicles

1. just (299)
2. could (211)
3. back (196)
4. about (192)
5. like (191)
6. all (170)
7. zack (167) Note: Zack is a character
8. get (152)
9. down (137)
10. after (136)

At first, I thought “that’s not embarrassing at all.” I saw no “that”s or “was”s. But then I realized there was an option to ignore common words. I unchecked it an ran the report again.

1. I (2437) Note: Understandable, since it’s a first person YA novel.
2. the (2306)
3. to (1675)
4. and (1326)
5. was (953)
6. a (933)
7. of (855)
8. my (766)
9. me (672)
10. that (665)

Well, both “was” and “that” appear in this list. Still, it could be way worse.

So now let’s look at my unpublished novel, which is about the same length:

10 Most used words in (unpublished novel)

1. Matt (488) Note: Character name
2. Chris (444) Note: Also a character name
3. back (288)
4. just (249)
5. could (220)
6. portal (216) Note: Hope that doesn’t give too much away…
7. Robbie (213)
8. Kurt (206)
9. about (164)
10. get (161)

Interesting, I guess. Taking out the character names gives us:

1. back (288)
2. just (249)
3. could (220)
4. portal (216) Note: Hope that doesn’t give too much away…
5. about (164)
6. get (161)
7. like (160)
8. all (158)
9. go (157)
10. one (153)

Well, that’s not hideous at all.

Finally, let’s add the “common words” and see what we find…

1. the (2183) no surprise, but ick.
2. to (1656)
3. he (1443)
4. and (1270)
5. of (924)
6. a (881)
7. was (869)
8. his (814)
9. that (738)
10. it (657)

That’s about it. I guess I don’t really have anything to add to that. I hope you found these numbers interesting and will give your own writing a little look over what words you use the most.

Thanks for reading, and let’s close with a shout out to WordCounter, the site I used for running these reports.

Which words do you use to much? Are you even aware of it? Click on over to WordCounter and let us know what you find!