Akimbo (And now words in your own writing that drive you crazy)

[Bahumat]

“Smile”

It’s my go-to word when I want to describe a character doing something and don’t know what else to have them doing. I’ve gotten so bad with it that in addition to doing an edit pass to check if I really want to use every instance of “very” I also do an edit pass to check if I really want to use every instance of a character smiling.

“Smile” and “nodded” are both on my ctrl-f list when doing a pass on a story. I know your pain! ;_;

[Televassi]

High-octane.

Just no.

[Ricky_P]

…the words I need to watch out for most often are the Adverbs of Generic Emphasis: very, really, actually.

I tend to use these quite a lot too, mostly “very” and “really,” along with “just.” I don’t even need that word half the time, yet I use it way too much.

[Bahumat]

…the words I need to watch out for most often are the Adverbs of Generic Emphasis: very, really, actually.

I tend to use these quite a lot too, mostly “very” and “really,” along with “just.” I don’t even need that word half the time, yet I use it way too much.

That’s one of the reasons I heartily endorse and use the Hemingway Editor. You can use the online version for free, just google ‘hemingway editor’.