REVISIONS: WORD AND PHRASE FREQUENCY CHECK

I’m revising my middle grade historical fiction manuscript, CHASING HOME, and am at the point of fussing over word choice. This is a perfect time to enlist the support of the word frequency and phrase frequency checker (http://www.writewords.org.uk/word_count.asp) at the website www.writewords.com.  It’s so easy to use. Paste in a document or parts of a document, click “Submit,” and almost instantly it counts how many times words are used. All my pet words and phrases, weak verbs, and the dreaded “the” pop up and stand at attention like obedient soldiers. Little do they know most of them are  getting the ax.   

Another great use for this checker is to see how often characters’  names appear. If the main character’s name appears less than the villian, something ain’t right.