Via Cheryl Klein's very thorough book: SECOND SIGHT.
(p. 295, if you're looking it up)
http://writewords.org.uk/phrase_count.asp
Paste your entire manuscript into this word counter and see how often you've used a word. Cheryl recommends it as potentially revealing a hidden theme or image to expand on during revision.
I, of course, used it to show how many times I've OVER-used a word.
The Phrase Counter tab was particularly revealing...
74 uses of THE FRONT
60 of NEXT TO
I've got a lot of fronts going on. Steps, porches, sidewalks.
And those were just 2-word phrases.
When I changed it to 3?
I mean, really? Sixteen IN FRONT OFs?
Yikes. Off to revise. Thanks, Cheryl...
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5 comments:
Augusta! That is rediculously fascinating! I either had 67 similes or my characters are all valley girls (like x 67). Missing you. Two regrets about missing SCBWI Miami--seeing you present and meeting Cheryl. See you in Jan!
I am TOTALLY doing this with my revision next week via Lisa's editorial letter. I tend to repeat a lot and have to cut a lot. ;-)
What a great idea. Can't wait to give it a go.
Thanks for posting this Augusta, it will be a great help to my writers/critters in The Yellow Brick Road!
Wow. Isn't it amazing how much free cool tech there is out there? Who knew a revision site to count words and phrases, but sounds very useful!
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