spill (for clarification)

[digitalusrex.livejournal.com]

in incubus dreams, i got about halfway through before i began unofficially counting the number of times miss laurell used the world "spill" (or "spilled," "spilling," etc). unofficially, i counted maybe 8 or 9 "spills" before i started officially counting. 32 after that.

having started re-reading danse macabre, in the first 160 pages or so: 11. [EDIT: 16 at 314 pages. EDIT EDIT: 21 at 383 pages (also, 4 times on one page!)]

i know i have favorite words that i like to use, but this goes above and beyond. now, while reading danse macabre, i've tried to decide if other words could have been substituted and stayed true to the original meaning of the passage. yep.

a LOT of things annoy me about the series, especially the last 4 books, but this "spill" nonsense is what is bugging me this week. if miss laurell had an editor with ballz, perhaps it would have made a difference?

have you all noticed this overusage of the word "spill"?

Comments

[frabjously.livejournal.com]

In short: HELL YES.

That woman uses the word spill for everything and anything. Hair, power, clothing, and God knows what else. She's ruined the word so much that I can't even write the word spill in a perfectly ordinary context like "I spilled my drink" without going cross-eyed and banging my head against the wall.

The moral is that LKH ruins English vocabulary.

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

(*pained voice*) Yes. Oh yes.

Also "sweetie," "nude"/"nudity" (what's wrong with "naked"?), "metaphysical" and, ye gods, "power."

Though in those cases it might be more the way she uses them that bugs me rather than the frequency...

[panicqueen.livejournal.com]

She tends to overuse dozens of words, but yes, that's the most overused word of the bunch.

When I was reading the first Charlaine Harris novels, I noticed she liked to use the phrase "pleased as punch." I counted three or four in the first couple of books. I've finished the fourth book (fifth? I can't remember) and I haven't seen it since the second one.

If only Laurell could have done the same, with soooooo many things.

[dan-lian.livejournal.com]

God... who's got the icon with: "Erotic? I do not think this word means what you think it means"... I need to yoink it now.

[ellenel13.livejournal.com]

Yes. And, personal pet peeve, why don't you use capital letters?

[no-ron.livejournal.com]

:)))
that's my favorite laurellism! :))
she did use it in the older books, when she was still readable, but it never seemed in excess.
then one day i noticed that suddenly many things were spilling. and when finally hands and weirder stuff started to spill.. that was my wtf moment..

[vlredreign.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, teh spillage goes waaaaaay back.

Along with:

my sweetie (makes me wanna yark)
"Let me test my understanding..." - test THIS, bitch!!
vanilla
kitty-cat eyes
hair as black as mine
"He brought me..." Brought you where? To the loony bin?? Oooh, can we use the pointy thingies?!?!?
"He/I ate/fed at my/his mouth..." What, McDonald's run out of burgers?

You know, among others. :D

[shadowbloodwing.livejournal.com]

Spill and nude. Most overused words ever! "Nude" is something a model is when they're posing for an art class, not something you say during foreplay. LKH needs a thesaurus and/or dictionary. Doesn't even have to buy them, there's a vast internet out there for her to utilize if she ever gets that smart. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but a girl can dream right?

Somehow I doubt it's the editor's fault. They're payed to check for spelling and grammar errors, not point out to the author that she's a stupid bitch in need of a bigger vocabulary.

[panicqueen.livejournal.com]

I don't have any of the books in front of me for reference (I sold them a couple of weeks ago), but she used a couple variations of "double-edged sword" SEVERAL TIMES over the course of five or six of the novels.

Annoying.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I'm joining in the chorus of "let me test my understanding," hate. And I'll raise y'all a, "flat out did it for me/him/them/us." DID WHAT, BITCH? WHAT DID IT DO?!

And my favourite peeve of all: overuse of the word "vamp" (stabbity!).

[kethlenda.livejournal.com]

Any reference to someone's pulse being candy.

Also, the use of the term "his body" to refer to a guy's penis. Often leading to ludicrous constructions like "His body was lying against his body..." or "I took his whole body into my mouth."

[leggomylegolas.livejournal.com]

She also says things are "a line" a lot. "Like a line of fire" "his body was a line of muscle" wtf does that mean, Laurel.

"Made it a question" makes me want to hurt people. All you have to do is use one of THESE: "?" and we'll know, ok?

Anne Rice does it with "in sum". It's in every book multiple times. So fucking annoying.

[roguetailkinker.livejournal.com]

"screaming" and "I screamed" "He brought me screaming".

Anita screams way too damn much! She screams in bed, she screams when the bad guys scare her, she screams all the time! Enough already!

[slayra.livejournal.com]

All the words above are quite painful to read in the contexts LKH uses them. I have come to hate the word 'metaphysical' especially when connected with the word 'sex'. Her descriptions of sex are appaling at best, so yeah, those words... guh.

But another term/expression I now dread is 'Gallic shrug [that meant anything and nothing]'. :p

[nyktipolos.livejournal.com]

Happens in Merry Gentry as well.

Several times in her latest books everyone seems to be swallowing the moon in their skin. Or the sun in their skin. Bah.