Based on the works of Ieda Maria Alves (1990), Maria Aparecida Barbosa (2001), Margarida Basílio (2006), Nilce Sant’ Anna Martins (2001, 2003), Edith Pimentel Pinto (1994), Dino Preti (2000) and Luiz Carlos de Assis Rocha (1998) about neologisms, word formation and the relation between these processes and literature, this paper analyzes the way authors use language to build their texts.  Being more specific, the objective here is to observe, in some texts written by Guimarães Rosa, Luiz Ruffato e Luis Fernando Verissimo, the preferential word formation process, namely derivation, compounding and semantic neologism, used by them and try to establish relations between the preference given to each of the processes and the literary project of these authors.