Oh boy. Haven't you heard this one a million times before? Maybe in different forms such as:

"You're using too many exclamation marks."

"You tell too much."

"You're over describing."

"Oh my God, does every second word have to be an adverb?"

The key to successful writing is moderation. If you know how to balance out the use of different things in your story, it will have a lovely flow and your reader will be forced to look beyond the words, at the world you've creating.

Overuse is one of the major author sins. When you do it, the reader is pulled out of your story (usually annoyed) and the experience becomes less enjoyable.

So with that in mind, let's treat some common overuse in writing:

1. Punctuation overuse:

Wait, can one actually overuse punctuation? Yes, they can. And it goes beyond grammatically correct.

Example: "Mike! I'm so glad to see you! It's been ages! We should grab dinner sometimes!"

"Sure! Can't wait to hear what you've been up to! Let's go now!"

That sequence, ladies and gentlemen, is grammatically sound. But there is an obvious exclamation mark overuse that makes it seem like your characters are always screaming. It's annoying and a sign of amateur wtiting.

So yes, overuse of

- ! - your character is always screaming or much more excited than a normal person is

- ? - who really talks in questions all the time. Overuse of rhetoric questions is also a turn off for regular narration (even in first person) because it leaves the impression that the author has no idea what's going on

- ... - elipses signify trailing off so they're NEVER a substitute for periods or commas. Makes the writing feel stilted and insecure

- dashes - if you use too many dashes, you obviously have a sentence structure problem.

You can't basically overuse commas or periods, colons or semicolons because that steps into bad punctuation usage, grammatically speaking.

Okay, but what about !!!! Or ???? Or ?!?!?!

Unless you're writing humor, NO!

?! Is a debatable punctuation mark depending on where you come from, but using more than one question mark or exclamation mark for other purposes than satire is perceived as amateur.

2. Adverb overuse

What are adverbs? In writing, they are basically go-to descriptive words that help you paint a picture. They're also bait set up to lead you into a telling trap. They are also referred to as -ly words.

"What a lovely day," she said, joyfully.

"I know," he merrily replied.

Adverbs are very useful in the descriptive process, but overuse is easily noticeable and is the mark of lazy description. Because instead of showing how one does an action, you simply state it (hence the tell vs show trap).

Don't get me wrong. Adverbs are great and you should definitely use them, but in short supply and only to describe things that aren't important enough to warrant a broader description.

How much is too much with Adverbs? Well, it depends on who you're asking, but someone once told me that more than 3 on a page is too much. Now it depends a lot on what kind of story you're writing, but having it every other line or more than once in a paragraph is definitely overuse.

How can you reduce adverb use? Usually by using a different, targeted word:

Ex: he said angrily vs he growled/spat/yelled.

3. Word overuse

Surprise surprise. You can overuse words. We will have a separate echo section in the book, so I'll tackle this really quickly (oops, adverb) by splitting it in two:

A. Common word overuse

Common words are the words who are usually invisible as you read them, as in you don't stop to think about them. Most common invisible words are pronouns and the verb said.

But using only said as a dialogue tag and only pronouns without regular variation with the name of the character makes them visible.

Making common words visible is a mark of overuse and amateur writing.

How to avoid it? By variation. Don't use said and asked for every dialogue tag. Alternate pronoun use with name use. If you feel like you're using too many of the same conjunction, vary the sentence structure. We're creative writers. Let's get creative about it!

B. Complicated word overuse

Here I'm talking about big words or words that aren't used as often (Not necessarily complicated words).

Like, for instance, reciprocate. It's not a complicated word, but you don't use it very often.

You don't find yourself saying He didn't reciprocicate her affection. You're a lot more likely to say he didn't return her affection.

So using this word more than once in close proximity will feel like overuse. What's close proximity in the case of complicated words? I'd say once a chapter. If you feel the ache to do it again, use the basic word or a synonym. Unless you want to look like a thesaurus stuck on a page.

What if you just use too many words? That's called wordiness and will be an entirely different chapter.

4. Dialogue tag and action tag overuse

Like mentioned in the earlier chapters, action and dialogue tags come in many shapes and sizes. So, can they be overused?

Yes. Using only action tags or only dialogue tags gets annoying really fast. Also, using the same dialogue tag over and over gets very tiresome.

The secret here is simple: alternate between dialogue tags, action tags and no tags. The possibilities of avoiding overuse are endless.

5. Showing overuse

Whoa! What a concept! Can you overshow?

Yes, yes you can. Just like everything else in writing, the secret is moderation. What does overshowing look like?

Let's do some basic tell vs show theory.

Tell: She opened the window.

Show: She reached out, grasped the lock and twisted it, then pushed the glass until, with a loud screech, the old window finally budged, letting in crisp spring air.

Okay, the second example is a lot less bland and a lot more visual. But can you imagine describing every single action your character does in detail like that? It would kill your pacing.

That's why telling is sometimes good because it moves the story along until something worth showing comes down the line (think of narrative time skips).

So while most of your story should rely on showing, don't overdo it or your pacing will plumet. This idea is based around the idea that most of your story consists in show-worthy incidents. So save it for those and casually tell from time to time. Your readers will thank you.

6. Overdsecription

Wait, didn't I just tackle that? Nope. There's a difference between over showing and over describing.

Over describing looks a lot more like this: her hair was long, reaching her lower back, and colored like the feathers or a raven, perfectly matching the sash draped over her generous chest and the hilt of the knife inside her brown boots. Her green pants fitted snugly against her rounded, wide, and perky bottom as well as her shapely legs and matched her almost see-through white blouse.

Too. Many. Words. Description is great until you overuse it because then it just gets boring. It's like having and entire page to describe a house instead of putting out a few pointers and letting the reader's imagination do the rest.

Every description should focus on what sets the described object or person aside and never be presented in one huge chunk because if the reader won't skim, they'll surely forget.

Less is more. The imagination usually paints a better picture than we ever could.

7. Inner thought

Yes, you can overuse inner thought. It's usually a very handy tool for bringing the reader closer to the character, but:

In third person, there needs to be some distance to let the reader breathe. Having half of your narration in italics just goes to show that you'd rather write first person. Use it when it matters for maximum kick else it loses the effect and just starts to feel like the character is narrating the story inside their head.

In first person, the whole narration is basically inner thought, but in some instances, direct inner thought is used (italics) to show when the narrator is basically talking to him/her self. Same problem as above for overuse. In first person, it's even less needed because of the intimacy between reader and narrator, so it should only be used for dramatic effect.

8. Emphasis

You all know what it is, right? I don't really have to explain it, do I?

See what I just did there? Nifty effect, right? How about if I did it more often? Make sure you guys get what I'm trying to say. It would be so cool. Not to mention educating. And so much less effective.

Not as spectacular in that second paragraph, am I right? You lose the intended effect. Less is more.

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These are the main instances where overuse comes in. I cannot stress this enough. The solution is not to NOT use those things, but rather to alternate or use with MODERATION.

~written by Wimbug