In my editing practice, two words that writers overuse when they’re describing characters they want to impress you with are “beautiful” and “handsome.”

What, exactly, are they trying to say? What makes someone appear beautiful?

Especially irritating to me is when an author writes: “She used to be beautiful, but now she had a few wrinkles around her eyes…”

Argh. Irk. You’d be much better off saying,“She used to be twenty-two…” […]