I'm working on the WiP, and noticing yet another flare up of the same ol' words. Plus a new one or two. Just shoot me. And that's my problem, because I don't know how I'm going to make myself stop. It's too hard, so I'm going to just go ahead and tell you, because the list is pretty short.
just
pretty
because
so
yet
that
Those are the five that seem to pop up the most.
What are your crutch words? What did you use instead to change it up, or take their place?
I read a blog this morning where a newly published first time author stated she was able to remove 300 words by deleting most of her "that"s and "just"s.
That could *so* be me. (Probably more than 300.)
7 comments:
Happens to all of us I'm afraid....seems to be no escaping it! Still, it's frustrating isn't it, to find them like weeds! Have you tried the wordl scramble thing? http://www.wordle.net/ Paste your whole MS into the box and see what words appear most often.
You need to read this. The most awesome way to end your 'noise' word habit I've ever seen.
Just say NO!NO!NO!
http://blog.garycorby.com/2010/02/autocorrect-is-your-friend.html
Yes Sierra, I did it with ILYU and it's actually still hanging up on my wall:)
And Kari, autocorrect? It sounds so, uh, electronic and newfangled. (Checking out the blog now...)
Okay Kari, I'm back, and I follow him, so I wonder how I missed that post??? Wonderful idea! Thanks for the suggestion! Now I need to figure out the perfect words to take the place of my crutches. (Besides no. Like, REDO. And, THIS IS POO! And YOU AGAIN?)
When I re-edited my last book I took out 632 that's. yeah. with out using search and destroy. I've got to try that wordle thing.
I used to struggle with 'was.' Since there's no word that takes its place, I had to learn creative ways to reword sentences. Sometimes I almost take out too many of my 'was'es!
Piedmont Writer, that sounds like it would be me too. I used the word cloud more as an inspiration - it was neat to see how the words pretty much summarized the important parts of the story!
And Diane - Oh crud, I never thought about "was"!
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