Just finished Julie Ann Peters’s LUNA — which I liked, and about which I will have more to say this week — and was struck by two crutch words she uses, as physical descriptions, over and over: someone’s eyes widening — generally to express sarcastic intent or signal someone to stop something — and someone’s “spine fusing.”
The second stood out to me because the first time, it struck me as a nice description of someone stiffening; by the third or fourth time, though, I was over it. And the first was noticeable because I have different associations with eyes widening, so all the many usages of this felt odd.
Do you notice crutch words when you read? There was one that drove me mad in TWILIGHT (especially, as I recall, in NEW MOON), but now I’m blanking on what it was. Googling turned up a different one of Meyer’s crutches I can attest to — Bella “glaring” at Edward.
And writing this post, I can see what one of my own crutch phrases is — something “striking me.” (I edited a few out.)
Posted in Luna, Meyer, Stephenie, Peters, Julie Ann, Twilight series
Crutch words suck to read, but they’re so hard to catch in your own stuff! I think there are programs out there to help you catch phrases/words that are overused, but I can’t remember what they’re called.