Word!

So I made this little word cloud of my entire blog.
A couple of things really jump out at me. The word, “really” and the word “just”. I think these are bad writing habits. I noticed it during NaBloPoMo. When I was proofing my posts, I would often have the word “really” twice in one sentence. And then I’d string another sentence just like it right aftward. Yikes! I haven’t really had any creative writing or journalism classes. Although I’ve been a writer, an editor, and a publisher for years. I know what it’s supposed to look like. But then when I write from my own point of view, my colloquialisms emerge.  That needs to be cleaned up.

If you’ve been reading my blog, I’d imagine you’re saying “Thank God!! I have been bugged by this for a long time now!” hahaha. So, I wonder …”so” is probably another overused word of mine, but it just didn’t come up in the

Wordle Cloud.

This is what the Wordle Cloud pulled out for just the posts in November. Not that much difference, in my opinion. Still “Just” and “really” getting a waaay higher billing than they should.  So my point in doing this is purely self-discovery. And it’s colorful and kind of cool. If you want to see if you have a pattern in your writing, and you’re a visual person like me, this might help you too.

Wordle is cool because you can change the shape, colors, orientation of the words, fonts, etc.

*Weird side note: In all I’ve written about Michael over the years, I’m not seeing his name show up. I see Katie, and Alyssa and Ron, but no Michael. “Brother” is in there somewhere, but… I don’t know if it’s accurate, or I’m just not mentioning him as much as I think I am.  So, if you do it, let me know if you have words that aren’t showing up that you think ought to.