Books

A phrase, not a word (and I forget the book), but the author kept saying that characters ears were burning to indicate that they were angry. I'd never heard that phrase used in that context, and it was used that way a bunch of times in the book.

Steven king uses “generous” a lot. Generous waist, generous stomach, generous breasts. Not that exciting, just something I’ve noticed.

Just finished How to Sell a Haunted House, which I really enjoyed despite not being much of a horror fan, and came across the word “louvered” enough times that it really stood out to me.

Stephen Erikson in the Malazan books “must needs” to use certain words and phrases endlessly, causing my eyes to turn “lambent” with recognition whenever i see them. I am now so used to them my soul is “gelid” without them.

Anne Rice’s frequent use of “preternatural” in her vampire trilogy makes my blood run cold.

Anne Rice and the word “hubris”

I used to read the comic strip Baby Blues and they used ellipsis to end a word bubble in one panel and finish the sentence in the next panel. It drove me crazy. Ex: I expected a few…. Tears.

I find in a few books where the author gets stuck on a word for a few chapters then moves onto the next. Like they are testing the word around the house for a week then move onto the next word.

I've been listening to The Secret History by Donna Tartt (my first audiobook) and am nearly done. It's read by the author and I'm really enjoying it, but she says the word forehead so many times. I wouldn't have noticed but she pronounces it "far ed".

I just read No Country for Old Men, and McCarthy uses the word "study" or "studied" like at least 5 times per chapter.

Example: "Chigurh studied the dead man."

John Green uses cacophony an awful lot.

“Judder” in Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet ugh.

Philip K Dick uses “ersatz” probably 7 or 8 times in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Haruki murakami and blake crouch used “Polish off” in reference to finishing food/drinks a ton.

Steven Erikson in the Malazan series uses the word "silt" or "silts" enough to be noticed.

Clive Barker uses the word "din" altogether too often.

Dan Simmons used to be very fond of the word "lapis" -- ala lapis lazuli -- to describe an intense shade of blue. I don't know if he got over it, but he used it at least twice in every damned book of his I read.

Michael Moorcock uses insouciant/insouciance in most of his writing, but it's only one or two times per book and I think it's more of an inside joke than weak/lazy writing like most of the other examples here.

Anne McCaffrey - “all-important” and “trumpeted” are used so often it’s like no other words exist on Pern.

I have noticed some authors greatly overdo the use of “made his/her/their way” when talking about characters traveling. A few times is OK, but it can become the de facto movement expression, and it’s grating after a while.

I forget the book, but it was about the rise of the alt right movement online and it used the word 'milieu' a LOT.

Celia S. Friedman: "He said softly".

I love Terry Pratchett, but you could often tell which was his current “pet” word at the time of writing. “Gingerly” is one that got around, but there’s plenty of others he loved too.

I hate when authors just lather pages with repetitive words.

I'm looking at you "the" "and" and "a/an"