I’m in the process of rereading the first twenty-three chapters of The Fallen: Part Two.  As I have been perusing the pages of my first draft, I’ve been finding some word repetition. The problem with overusing a word, is that it becomes distracting to the reader.

I remember reading a book recently where the author used the word swung for everything.  I swung into the car.  I swung my legs out of bed.  I swung around the corner. I swung my arms… well, you get the point. I got so irritated every time I saw the word swung, that it distracted me from the story itself, and this was a NY Times bestseller! I am not saying that I am perfect, but I do work really hard to avoid repetition (having a lot of beta readers helps).