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

[vmisery.livejournal.com]

I find that funny, because in earlier books she makes a big point that lycanthropes are never naked, just nude. Cause naked is self-conscious/vulnerable and nude isn't apparently and lycanthropes are so comfortable with lack of clothing.

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

I'm now recalling a conversation Neil Gaiman's Death had with her always-naked sister Despair: "I always think of you as nude. It's . . . elegant. Babies are naked."

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

Hmm... yes, that's the same definition a friend of mine gave me when I complained about the subject.

Not that it matters. These days, no one is ever naked in those books, they're always nude. I think she just thinks it sounds nicer. =]

[arclights.livejournal.com]

Naked sounds dirtier, and is probably offensive to her sensibilities. It makes sense to me, and I find myself doing the same thing a lot. Of course, I never try to market myself as hardcore and edgy, but ... you know. :P

[baeraad.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree. That's kind of what annoys me with her overuse of that word - that it sounds so coy and prettified in a story that is so full of explicit sex, graphic violence (well, not so much of that anymore, actually...) and all sorts of bodily fluids constantly spilling (sorry ;) ) all over the place.