From your dashboard on Édith & Nous, you will access a lot of information, such as the statistics of your manuscript (My manuscripts > Manage my manuscript > Statistics of my manuscript). Among these statistics is lexical richness, which measures the diversity of the number of words in a manuscript. This indicator makes it possible to place a manuscript among other manuscripts of the same category(ies) and of equivalent length. Three levels of lexical richness are assessed: “Moderate”, “Standard” or “High”.
From your dashboard on Édith & Nous, you will access a lot of information, such as the statistics of your manuscript (My manuscripts > Manage my manuscript > Statistics of my manuscript). Among these statistics is lexical richness, which measures the diversity of the number of words in a manuscript. This indicator makes it possible to place a manuscript among other manuscripts of the same category(ies) and of equivalent length. Three levels of lexical richness are assessed: “Moderate”, “Standard” or “High”.
How can you appropriate this indicator by using it to improve the writing of your manuscript?
PERSONAL USE ACCORDING TO EACH LITERARY PROJECT
The evaluation of the lexical richness of manuscripts is an indicator made available to all authors, and everyone is of course free to refer to it or not.
Indeed, not everyone pursues the same objective when writing a novel: some authors give more importance to the story they wish to tell and to the substance of the characters who advance it. For other authors, who seek above all to work on language, the quality of the writing takes precedence over the construction of a plot.
We find the same diversity in the editorial lines of publishing houses: some give little importance to the plot and are above all in search of new literary “voices” with very inventive pens, while others others prefer an effective style, more capable of building narrative tension and poignant characters. From the transgressive work in the style of Virginie Despentes to the breathtaking suspense of The Da Vinci Code , there are a thousand and one ways to approach the writing of your novel, and almost as many editorial lines that can correspond to each of them.
REWORK THE STYLE OF YOUR MANUSCRIPT ALONE
Practicing writing exercises , which aim to improve your style, is a good place to start. You can then eliminate redundancies at the proofreading stage, when your entire manuscript has been fully written:
Track repetitions from one line to another: these can be classic repetitions (you have repeated exactly the same word one or more lines apart in the text) or repetitions of words from the same family, which bring monotony to the text (like “seem” and “like”). The latter are not taken into account in the calculation of lexical richness on Édith & Nous but can unintentionally make the subject heavier, so it would be beneficial to eliminate them.
Identify the “weak verbs”: these are very common verbs that we use constantly, and unconsciously. “Being”, “having” and “doing” constitute the main triad. These all-purpose verbs, because of their many meanings, can make your statement lose precision and bore the reader. Do not hesitate to find substitutes such as “show” for “to be”, “possess” for “to have”, “realize” for “to do”…
Use a thesaurus (paper or electronic) if you lack inspiration to replace a repetition.
CALL ON PROFESSIONALS
In a manuscript, certain repetitions hinder reading... while others are, on the contrary, crucial because they provide stylistic emphasis! It can be difficult to pinpoint the difference, or simply to know how to inject more variety into your vocabulary; replacing a word with its synonym is often not enough to gain lexical richness.
A large number of free resources are accessible from your dashboard (“The keys to success”) or on our blog: there you will discover in particular the list of the main typographic rules or even the keys to practicing creative writing . In order to leave nothing to chance, you can entrust your manuscript to the Correction workshop . Professional proofreaders will free it from its heaviness and repetition and will track down spelling, typographical, grammar and syntax errors. But as we have seen, a rich lexicon is not everything: this is why the Proofreading workshop will allow you to benefit from a complete literary analysis of your manuscript (plot, characters, structure, etc.) as well as suggestions for rework provided by our specialist literary advisors.
The assessment of lexical richness on Édith & Nous offers authors a unique opportunity to immediately understand the diversity of vocabulary used in each of their manuscripts. Its use depends on the creative objectives of each person. After all, it’s always the author who has the last word!