Word Blindness

Word Blindness

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

& how do you beat it?

Word blindness: what is it?

Well, I use it to describe the following:

No 1: Using the same word too many times in a book - from walk/ed to smile/d to laugh/ed to look/ed to sigh/ed and so on.

No. 2: Using the same verb/adjective/adverb in a paragraph or in close paragraphs without noticing.

I seem word blind to both forms, but no. 2 irritates me most.

Because I know I do it, but I can't seem to get in between my brain thinking the word (again) and stopping my fingers from typing it... again - if that makes any sense.

I don't edit till that vomit draft [first draft] is done, so I don't spot em till then anyway - so somehow that feels worse, maybe 🙁

I'm not sure how I can help myself intervene.

Maybe it's a learning-by-doing thing? For example, I am paranoid about using walk/walked and sigh/ed, so I have become hypervigilant about avoiding them. But I can't do that with every word I might use. I don't think I could keep it all in my head.

Maybe it's part of the dyslexic brain thing that I can't stop myself from using the word before I type it, or at least pause before I type it? The problem for me is - & maybe the best way to describe it, is my writing process is like trying to speak German. I don't think in English and then translate it into German; I just say it in German (badly, no doubt!). That's how I write - there isn't space in that process to think - hang on, stop - that's something you've repeated and not write it - unless, currently, it's sighed or walked!

If you're writing, does it happen to you? If so, how do you/did you learn to stop?

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