Tuesday, February 23, 2021

 Crutch Words

Writers often use crutch words in their writing. Words they think add to the story or words that have becomes a habit. Or maybe they’re filler words to increase the total word count in their novel. In writing sometimes, they can be words or phrases the writer has used for a particular reason or for a particular novel. Then they end up overusing them. Crutch words can actually make your writing weaker, not strengthen it.

To tighten a story and keep a better flow, writers need to edit out those crutch words. You can use the edit on Word. Programs like Grammarly and Autocrit can help you catch these words when you edit.

Not all crutch words need to be eliminated. Search your writing, find the crutch word. Then see how many times you use it. Look at the sentence. Is it needed? If it’s in dialogue it might be appropriate. People do use crutch words in their dialogue.                                                Does it improve the sentence? If it’s eliminated does it read better or worse? If it doesn’t add anything or there’s a purpose to using it, then delete it. Probably delete most of that word. Then move on to the next crutch word.

Here are some of the more common crutch words. Often, they end in “ly”.  Actually Honestly, Obviously, Like, Basically, Literally, S, Well, Look, Awesome, Totally, Essentially. Really, Seriously, Very, Just, Right, Fantastic, Great, Super. My two crutch words from this are So and Just.

I’m aware of them and when I edit. I check everyone. Once in a while "just" fits. It feels right. “So” I leave it. And there is my “So”. Should I leave it or delete it?

Do you know your crutch words? What do you do about them?

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