I resist. I resist with grouchy mistrust. I like conveying tone of voice, volume, mood and so on through my verb choices. I am a poet before I am a writer, much like Tolkien, and sound matters to me as much as content.
That said, I've felt rather hacklike lately. It's partly just a dry spell; looking back at my writing last spring I see more original technique in all areas. Nevertheless, I am a devotee of "said bookisms," and I'm wondering whether it's a habit people find irritating.
In a similar vein, I stumbled across a web page collecting bad habits of SF writers which is probably worth a read by everyone.
