What are Your Overused or Crutch Words

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I know that I overuse certain words when I write, but it happens anyway. I don’t find them until the revisions, and then I’m shocked that I did it again. I finally made a list of the worst offenders that my critique group and editors have noticed over the years. Now during the early edits, I do a search and replace to get rid of the nasty critters.

Here’s my list:

  • A lot

  • Come on

  • Definitely

  • Few

  • Going to

  • Good

  • Grabbed

  • Hopefully

  • Just

  • Last

  • Lately

  • Little Dog

  • More

  • Only

  • Other

  • Out of the

  • Probably

  • Really

  • Several

  • Slightly

  • Still

  • Sure

  • That

  • Very

If you find that you have repeat words, make your list. If you weed out the duplicates during the editing stages, it will help make your writing stronger. (And you’ll be surprised how many times you use some of them.)