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Phrases you've noticed writers repeat?


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Perhaps! Or perhaps it was because the story was such a big stinking pile of :lol:. :lol: (Believe it or not, I do class myself as a Koontz fan, but this book was beyond terrible.)

 

Glad I'm not the only one who thought that. I'm a fan too, but this book I gave 1 out of 5 and I'm not sure if that was a little generous. :)

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Perhaps! Or perhaps it was because the story was such a big stinking pile of :lol:. :lol: (Believe it or not, I do class myself as a Koontz fan, but this book was beyond terrible.)

 

Glad I'm not the only one who thought that. I'm a fan too, but this book I gave 1 out of 5 and I'm not sure if that was a little generous. :)

 

Oh dear, I have this on my TBR pile :)

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Stephen King also uses the word 'moveless' to good effect often, i'm sure he coined that one.

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J.K. Rowling makes Hermione say "Always the tone of surprise" a lot in the last two books

 

I can't remember what they are now, but I do remember Rowling repeating several phrases in The Deathly Hallows. I think I wrote a review somewhere, I'll see if I can dig it out!

 

ETA:

 

Found it, it was people's ears turning red!

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In the Odyssey Homer continually refers to his characters through their characteristics - Odysseus is wise, resourceful, cunning, clever, admirable. His wife Penelope is Faithful Penelope, the Godess Athene is Bright eyed, Flashing eyes Athene. His son Telemachus is Thoughtful Telemachus. The sea is wine dark. I'm in the process of re-reading this book for the sole purpose of highlighting how Homer develops character through repetition of words and phrases. What I'm going to do with that when done I have no clue. ;)

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JK Rowling perhaps slightly overuses the, 'he, Harry' construction, eg. '... and he, Harry, would be...', '...then he, Harry, saw...', '...so that he, Harry, suddenly knew...' etc.

 

Really sorry if my pointing that out now bugs anyone, it drives my sister spare (nearly wrote 'potty' instead then, compl unintended pun)

 

Bernard Cornwell also has a habit of finishing chapters with momentous statements beginning with 'And'. Unfortunately my fave Warlord Chronicles are back home over the Pennines so I can't check, but I mean something along the lines of, 'And so we went to war.' 'And the battle of Lugg Vale was begun.' As an English Language student, this annoys me slightly more than the HP one, but obv not enough to prevent me devouring them ;)

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I'm reading a Cormac McCarthy book right now. In my opinion he has to be the greatest living writer, but the guy pays no attention to grammar. He uses the word "and" very often. He writes without commas and uses long sentences. If the character is uneducated, he writes that way. I really find his style unique.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Charlaine Harris like to use 'flashing signs' above her character's head's, such as 'it was as if I had a neon sign that read 'crazy' flashing above my head'. :D She does that a LOT!

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Awesome as he is, Daniel Waters ("Generation Dead") seems to have an awful lot of nodding going on. I counted six nods in two pages this morning...

 

For some odd reason I found myself nodding when I read this. Bizarre.

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