Editor Moment. . . . . Repetitive words

I have been working with an awesome nameless editor for months now as I work on my manuscript. My freind at 700blankpages suggested to me that I should tell all of you what I am learning as I edit my book.

So from now on as I have a spare moment or a profound lesson, I will post them here under the title Editor Moment.

So now for the first lesson I learned from my editor. Word repetition.

In my third chapter I sent my main characters to a wedding. While the image of this huge luxury home in my head was amazing and lavishly decorated, it was hard to describe. I saw pale wood floors and dark wood furniture and banisters. Every surface was covered with white flowers candles tuelle and pictures of the happy couple. The smell of the home was also something I wanted to describe, heady with flower smells.

Going back to the chapter in editing mode, I found that when I had an object or image on my mind, I tend to repeat it. For example, in one paragraph I had the word FLOWER over six times. So in editing I had to rewrite the entire description so I did not have as many repetitive words.

I have found as I have worked through the chapters that my tendency to see repeat words has increased, and my tendency to repeat words in rough draft drastically diminished.