Writing Tip #5: Trim the Fat

Well, it’s time to trim the manuscript. 

Ouch.

I’m so long-winded, it’s horrible. Every time I do another draft, my manuscript gains a few thousand words. Yikes!

But…some words are easy to cut. And painless. They’re the same words that bog down sentences and paragraphs. The best part is once they’re gone, I don’t miss them a bit. 

One of the last things I do with a manuscript is use the “Control F” function. Find and Replace, the writer’s best friend. Think of it like Search and Destroy. Once I feel my manuscript is “done”, I hunt for useless words that slipped in. Then I zap them and sit back, amazed at how quickly my word count drops. 

It’s awesome.

If you’ve been writing for awhile, you probably have your own list of excess words. I’ve gathered some over the years, but since I needed to go through this process this week, I put all my lists together in one place. I figured I’d post it here for you to peruse (and for me to use in future manuscripts).

Caution:

NOT ALL OF THE WORDS BELOW ARE ALWAYS USELESS!

1. There are times when you need a “THAT” or a “JUST” to make a sentence work.
2. Sometimes — and all you diehards don’t shoot me for saying this! — you need an adverb. Sorry, sorry, sorry! That’s just my opinion. Seriously, don’t shoot me. (See, I just used an adverb–and the word “JUST”. Ha!!!!)
3. Depending on how your characters speak, you may need to leave some unnecessary words in to make the character sound authentic. Example: Teenagers throw tons of extra words into their speech (like, so, that). Same with southerners. Know your characters and be careful not to ruin their “Voice” when you strip your manuscript. In fact, if you cut those words from all places except where your character says them, it will strengthen their voice.

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Because of those three reasons, I maybe cut half of the “useless” words, but it still adds up. THE POINT OF THE LIST BELOW IS TO GIVE YOU IDEAS OF WHERE YOU MIGHT  HAVE EXCESS. It’s tedious skimming your manuscript for every word, reading every sentence to see if the word is needed, but it’s worth the effort.  I just cut 2,500 words this week. 

Okay. Ready?

Here’s my list:

1. about   
2. actually
3. almost 
4. although             
5. appears               
6. approximately  
7. back      
8. basically              
9. close to               
10. enough               
11. even     
12. eventually          
13. exactly 
14. feel, felt, feeling             
15. finally   
16. for a moment   
17. get        
18. go/going          
19. had       
20. hear/heard        
21. in spite of           
22. just       
23. kind of 
24. know    
25. like        
26. look/looked 
27. nearly  
28. notice  
29. now      
30. one       
31. perhaps              
32. practically           
33. quite    
34. rather  
35. realize  
36. really    
37. saw, see, seen 
38. seems/seemed  
39. simply  
40. smile/smiled
41. so          
42. some    
43. somehow           
44. somewhat         
45. sort of  
46. still        
47. suddenly            
48. then     
49. thought               
50. time      
51. truly      
52. try/tried to         
53. turned 
54. utterly 
55. very      
56. was/were          
57. wonder               
58. yet        
59. (If you have words to add, comment below, and I’ll plug them in. )

ALSO…

There’s a great way to find your specific overused words. Paste your entire manuscript into Wordle.net. I explain how this works in the post here.

After three days of this tedious SEARCH and DESTROY method, I cut 2,400 words from my manuscript. Now it feels tight and concise. It reads faster and stronger, too, so it’s worth it! 

Good luck with your manuscripts!

What words do you overuse? Any I forgot? Comment here.

Side note: Readers have no idea what authors go through for them. :)

Other writing tips:

• Writing Tip #1: Ending Chapters at the Height of Scene, Not Resolution
• Writing Tip #2: Using Beats to Strengthen Characters and Settings
• Writing Tip #3: Know Your Writing Priorities
• Writing Tip #4: Beta Readers
• Writing Tip #5: Trim the Fat, Cutting the Easy Stuff

• My 100 Favorite Writing Things for my 100th Post
• My Top Ten Writing Tips

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