You've got a full dictionary, use it!

[Rev+]

This is a thread about authors who overuse certain words to a distracting extent.

I shall welcome other suggestions, if appropriate, but will begin by nominating the beloved Terry Pratchett.

Cunt really liked 'gingerly', didn't he?  Not a word I've ever heard spoken in real life, but it seems like it's on every other page of 'The Colour of Magic'. 

[Pavlov`s Dog`s Dad`s Dead]

In my mind, Mervyn Peake was inordinately fond of the word lambent. It probably only occurs twice in the entire Gormenghast trilogy, but I have never ever encountered it anywhere else. In any event, it has stuck with me. I think - emphasis on think - it's a fancier way of saying glowing. Actually, maybe that's better suited for the anti-thread[nb]Will Self probably thinks that thread is about him[/nb]: I've got a dictionary and I'm not afraid to use it.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

feel like lovecraft described many things simply as 'things' so much. however you can't fault him for not using his thesaurus. rather the opposite; a mad and unwieldy stew of adjectives for the contents of a single room etc

[buttgammon]

It's years since I've read any Iain Sinclair but one of the reasons his books annoyed me was the constant description of people "sucking on" a cup of tea. How horrible!

[bgmnts]

feel like lovecraft described many things simply as 'things' so much. however you can't fault him for not using his thesaurus. rather the opposite; a mad and unwieldy stew of adjectives for the contents of a single room etc

I think I heard Alan Moore once say Lovecraft tends to describe hsi creatures as what they aren't, rather than what they are. I quite enjoy this method of description.

[pigamus]

Martin Amis is very fond of "quiddity".

[Inspector Norse]

I remember noting that Iain Banks - with and without his M - used the word "inchoate" rather often; I think I spotted it because I'd looked it up after seeing it in one of his books and then seemed to notice it again in many of his other works.

[NoSleep]

feel like lovecraft described many things simply as 'things' so much.

Also described much as indescribable or nameless.

[poloniusmonk]

I read the first few Harry Potter books to my son, and particularly the first couple are clumsily constructed and poorly written. But reading aloud also made me realise just how often she had Hermione say something 'shrilly' - because I always found it difficult to say. Also no one male ever said anything shrilly, it's one of those weird negative gendered expressions and indicative of those books weird underlying sexism.

[All Surrogate]

I read the first few Harry Potter books to my son, and particularly the first couple are clumsily constructed and poorly written. But reading aloud also made me realise just how often she had Hermione say something 'shrilly' - because I always found it difficult to say. Also no one male ever said anything shrilly, it's one of those weird negative gendered expressions and indicative of those books weird underlying sexism.

'Repressively' is another Rowling annoyance.

[the ouch cube]

Reread "Perdido Street Station" and China really likes talking about small items being little. Not small or minute or tiny, but always little. Obviously there are lots and lots of things in both our world and I daresay every imaginary world which are little, it's not an uncommon concept, but I was counting more than two 'little's per page for quite a long time.

[Joe Oakes]

Charlie Brooker irritatingly always uses 'bellow' instead of 'shout'.

[Catalogue of ills]

feel like lovecraft described many things simply as 'things' so much. however you can't fault him for not using his thesaurus. rather the opposite; a mad and unwieldy stew of adjectives for the contents of a single room etc

Lovecraft used 'certain' to death, as in 'worshipped in certain tribes' or 'hidden in a certain abandoned house at the edge of town'.  The intention is clearly to add some mystery and emphasis and it works the first couple of times, but by the Old Ones did he wear it thin.

[Tikwid]

On the topic of Lovecraft, there were still a fair few more specific adjectives he often used - take a shot every time an old stone structure is "Cyclopean", or the progression of an ancient civilisation's artwork is described as "decadent"

[Catalogue of ills]

Say what you like about Will Self, you don't get this problem with him.

[NoSleep]

On the topic of Lovecraft, there were still a fair few more specific adjectives he often used - take a shot every time an old stone structure is "Cyclopean", or the progression of an ancient civilisation's artwork is described as "decadent"

I remember my first reaction to Lovecraft as a writer was that he was embarrassingly bad, at the same time both stunted and pretentious (a Lord Dunsany fanboy). His saving grace was the scope of his imagination.

[touchingcloth]

I read the first few Harry Potter books to my son, and particularly the first couple are clumsily constructed and poorly written. But reading aloud also made me realise just how often she had Hermione say something 'shrilly' - because I always found it difficult to say. Also no one male ever said anything shrilly, it's one of those weird negative gendered expressions and indicative of those books weird underlying sexism.

My overriding memories are of bad similes - Hagrid's feet "were like baby dolphins" I seem to recall, they didn't look like baby dolphins, they were like them; I think her non-Potter The Casual Vacancy described the sky as looking like "the underside of a shield" - and of overuse of the phrase "he, harry". I think she uses it more frequently than "he, Smillie".

[ZoyzaSorris]

Having listened to a lot of Potter audiobooks on long journeys due to young kid in car, she seems to really like using adverbs, and in particular almost everything seemed to have been done indignantly.