JCB's Ruminations on the Craft of Fiction #78
November 18, 2021
A few days ago I was recalling how, about fourteen years ago, I experimented with creating concordances of the texts of the novels I was writing at the time. There were a few primitive tools I found online that took a text document as input and spit out a searchable concordance, a listing of all the words that appeared in the text and their immediate context. Using this tool I could discover, for example, that I used the word “descry” on page 32 and then again on page 216, as well as see the two sentences in which it appeared.
I forget the actual purpose for which I intended to use it, but I do remember noticing that there were a few words here and there that showed up in identical phrasings most times I used them. There are the usual cliches that show up despite our best efforts, but there are also little idiosyncrasies we don’t even notice we’ve developed for ourselves. I don’t remember any real examples from back then, but it would be something like if every time I used the word "stifle," it appeared exclusively in the phrase "stifle my creativity." When you’re forced to confront the fact that you use words in the exact same way every time, you might start reconsidering the way you approach your prose.
In any case, I thought I’d offer this idea in my rumination today, to think about ways of checking your own word usage. It’s been a long time since I looked for concordance-making software, but I’m sure there must be a few floating around out on the web. But however you manage to do it, it’s probably a good idea to analyze your own prose for personal quirks of expression and overused phrasings. Even if they’re not widely recognized as cliches, it’s always a good idea to work at keeping our prose fresh and expressive.
(I hope no one puts my ruminations into a concordance--ye gods, the regurgitated mash you’d find!)