Fic clouds

[zubeneschamali]

So I've been working on an academic article about using tag clouds (or content clouds, more properly speaking) to analyze other kinds of texts besides web pages: like, how do newspaper articles from different regions compare in terms of their coverage of a particular issue? 

And then I thought--wouldn't this be a neat thing to do to a fic?  It's a good way to see if you're overusing any words you shouldn't be, but it's also a fascinating insight into the structure of your story.

You can run a huge amount of text through TagCrowd at once:  I cut and pasted 140,000 words in and it didn't have a problem.  Here's some of my results (with possible spoilers):

From NUMB3RS fic:
.


.

And from SPN fic:


.

.

So I guess if I had to identify an overused filler word, it would be "around" or "away" or "going".  Sheesh.  I also appear to be obsessed with eyes and voices and other body parts, but you can't really blame me given the material I'm working with, can you?

Any other observations?   Want to make your own and post a link?  The stories I used are all over 25K words, but I'm sure smaller ones would work, too.

Comments

[lark_ascends]

Doing my long Numb3rs fic where I whumped Don, Don was the most common word and the overused words are something, anything, going, looked and thought.

[zubeneschamali.livejournal.com]

Yes, you can tell I'm a Don girl from these clouds. :) I know that "just" is a word I tend to overuse, but I always do a search-and-replace now before I post a story. Looks like I have a few more words to do that with!

[lark_ascends]

Just did one of my longer Supernatural fics, and 'something' and 'anything' pop up again. Look like I need to be conscious of those words!

[harrigan.livejournal.com]

I ♥ your icon!!!

Good to see that Sam and Dean are fairly equal in size in your clouds. In fact, although I know the words are alphabetical, I kinda like that "Sam shot shoulder" string in the last one *g*.

[zubeneschamali.livejournal.com]

Thanks! As soon as I picked myself up off the floor after laughing at that Castle scene, I decided I had to have it for an icon.

It's funny...if you'd asked me, I'd've said I was slightly more a Dean girl than a Sam girl, but not by much. Looks like that's reflected in my fic!

I'm happy that "brother" shows up so often, and amused at all of the weapons. :)