...what percentage of your book do you think the words 'I' (for first person narrative), 'but' and 'and' should take up.

I have just finished a third draft of a novel, but I am aware of the over use of these words (or what I perceive to be an overuse). So, after a little mathematics, I found that these three words account for 9% of the total (7500 of 80,000). Now to me that seems rather excessive so I did a little exercise (not physical you understand). All I did was download some extracts from novels in first person, do a quick tally up of these words, multiplied it by the percentage of a total of 80,000 (so in one case the extract was about 1,300 words, which is about 1.6% of 80,000, I multiplied by 1.6). Anyway, after all this I found that, for the three authors I had looked at 7%, 6% and 6% of the 80,000 words (based on a extrapolation) were either 'I', 'and' or 'but'. This gave me a little heart, although 2% more than the next highest does equate to 1600 so I am not terribly happy. So my question being, are you aware of the over use of these, or other, words in your novels? There are synonyms of 'but' available, but they sometimes don't fit (although, however, etc) and as for 'I' and 'and' I wish you luck (although and can, on occasions, be replaced with a comma or creative punctuation).

Am I being pedantic, or is it a concern for others as well. Personally I am going to go through my book again and think of other words to use in their place, but, if you as sad as me and find this sort of minutiae interesting, please comment.

And yes, there are quick ways of counting these words using Microsoft Word. I may be sad, but not that sad.

James,

I was about to say something about having too much free time, but if MS Word does it for ya, I'll just about let you off!!

I think the only thing that matters is people's responses to reading it. Have people told you there's too many 'I's 'but's and 'and's? Have certain words begun to grate as they're used too many times? If not, don't worry about it, I'd say. This is Art! Mathematical calculations are banned! (although I have to admit to having done calculations in the past to work out approximately how long it'll take me to finish something based on present writing speed, how much faster an extra page a day might make , etc)

Cath

I use "he said" or "she said" more than any other phrase. This came from having to read some work out aloud. It was only then that I realised that the people listening couldn't differentiate between characters (I wasn't doing voices you see). So I listened to a few radio stories and realised they have lots and lots of this, and very few examples of "he hooted" or "She exclaimed" or "he announced". Next step was the pub, where I listened to a few conversations and tried to keep count of "he said, so she said, so he said, and then she said"

I lost count before my second gulp.

So that's my excuse.

Not sure about too many "and"s though, unless one of your characters is called "And" and that affected your count.

Colin M

Hi James,

I read a great essay by Chuck Palahniuk on this very topic which he entitled Submerging the I. It was on chuckpalahniuk.net though it's probably been taken down now.

Like Colin said, most people don't tend to notice, but if there are too many then it might begin to jar.

Geoff

I have been thinking about this too but and try to think of different words or a different way of putting things. Then I got concerned with substituting with another word that sounded forced or unrealistic.