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Use a Word Cloud to Write Better

Posted on October 25, 2018 By Jackson Allen

Use a Word Cloud to Write Better

As I’m writing, one of the things I’m afraid of is using the same words, phrases, or descriptors over and over again. As much as I love Timothy Zahn’s Star Wars novels, it became a running joke in the first trilogy how many times he could use the word ‘sardonically.’ It bugs me to think that I might do the same thing, so what to do? I hit on an idea that seems to help and I want to share it with you: Use a word cloud to write better.

Scrivener has some tools to identify over-used words, and so does Grammarly. But what other ways can you visualize the words that your readers will see most often in your stories?

As a test, I tried this Wordcloud app in Microsoft Word on my existing draft of Mesh. These are the words that appear most often. Is that right? Is that wrong? I’m not sure yet. I have to make an author decision to either leave the words as-is, or go back and re-shape my prose.

Not a big ‘eureka’ idea, but I found it helpful and you might find it helpful, too. Write on!

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About Me


My name is Jackson Allen. I'm actively writing, querying, submitting neo-Golden Age scifi. I look for future trends in social and technical expansion and ask "how could you tell that story for kids that makes them feel excited about the future?" Lots of self-published shorts - actively querying for a formal, mainstream publication house.

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