“Front Yard Discovery,” a collage by Mark Fraley, from the book “Creation of Calm” © 2014
These troublesome words tend to hide like gremlins in our writing (especially in fiction, but also nonfiction).
We often use these words compulsively, but often they aren’t needed.
Remember, less is more. Conciseness makes better, stronger, clearer writing.
Do a search for—and delete unnecessary uses of—the following:
- very
- just
- that
- nice
- interesting
- look / looked (at)
- like
- then
- begin / began / beginning
- started / started to
- take / took
- seem / seemed
Were you surprised how many of these words showed up in your article, blog post, or book manuscript (especially a novel)?
Do you have other words on your personal list for keeping gremlins out of your polished drafts?