It's That Time Again

I'm at the point in my editing where it's that time again.  What time is it?  It's Crutch Word time!  That glorious time when I search through my manuscript for specific words and then eradicate them.

This is not as simple as Find and delete, delete, delete.  No, no.  That would really screw things up.  This is Find, fix, Find Next, fix... on and on until you've gone through the whole thing and then repeat with the next word.

Actually the first thing I do is Find each word and then click Highlight All, so it gives me a total.  Then I write the number down on my handy-dandy list of words.  After I have all the numbers, I start fixing them.  After I complete each word, I get a new total, so I can see where I'm at and whether I need to scour for that word again.  

Yesterday, I did THAT and LIKE and about 2/3rds of SAID.  It took me about 5 hours - an hour in the morning and a couple hours each in the afternoon and evening.  I intended to keep going and stay up late, but I got to the point with SAID that I was skipping instances without really looking at them or changing anything.  It's time to stop when it's no longer working.  I'll hit it again today.  

And when I get it all done, I'll hit the manuscript with the spelling/grammar checker to make sure I didn't screw anything up while I was fixing things.  

I will have this ready to go out before bed tonight.  If it kills me.  Which it just might.  (Heh, not really.)

Once it goes out, I'll take some time to write the blurb.  And think about what's next on the writing schedule.  And maybe just chill out for a couple days.

What's up in your world?

Weeding Crutch Words

I'm hitting the crutch words right now.  For the uninitiated, crutch words are those words an author relies on too much - like, that, just, etc.  I have a list.  It goes on and on.  Sometimes I add to it because my editor or proofers tell me they noticed other words I used too much. 

Before I hit the manuscript to start weeding out the crutch words - either deleting them or replacing them with something better - I print the list and count each word to see what I'm up against.  (MS Word is awesome for this.  In the Find function, type the word you're looking for, go to Reading Highlight, Highlight All, and it gives you a count.)  Here's a sample of the counts I got before I started the weeding process:

that - 439
like - 346
just - 74
said - 317
think - 153
thought - 130
know - 109
when - 202
well - 96
still - 68
even - 118
which - 92

Weeding out that and like took me a day each, off and on.  I've gotten the that occurrences down to 219 and the likes down to 146.  It's the best I can do.  I also hit actually because one of my proofers said I used it too much in this book.  Took it from 31 to 10.  One of my characters was using his brows too much, too, so I snipped away at that, too. 

One thing I should've done was weed the manuscript before I sent it to the proofers, but I forgot.  Well... actually... I repressed the need to do it because I hate this part so much. 

Over time, I've gotten better about not using certain words in my first draft.  My justs have dropped way down.  That one used to be three digits on a regular basis.  And the thats and likes were always higher.  I'm working on it.  And what I don't catch on the drafts, I try to catch in edits.  It's all good.

Anyway, I'm slogging through and trying not to just say 'fuck it all' and skip this step.  The urge is strong, but I'm fighting it because I want my books to be the best they can for my readers. 

I was thinking about this last night.  As a reader, I don't really notice authors overusing certain words.  I get dragged into the story and that stuff doesn't seem to throw me off.  Unless I'm editing my own stuff.  Then I see every single one of my crutch words in other people's work.  Ugh. 

How about you?  As an author, what are some of your crutch words?  As a reader, do you notice when a writer overuses a word? 

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Crutch Words

Or should I say, welcome once more? 

This time around, since Unequal was a book I'd written a while ago - you know, before I became totally awesome* - I have additional words to add to my usual words and my usual words were worse than usual.

It took me off and on about 4 hours to go through all the THAT.  Started out with 413 instances.  Ended up at 124 instances.  The next day, I tackled LIKE.  Went from 322 to 106.  Then I did JUST. 

Funny thing about JUST, though.  I did my usual search for JUST and Word told me I had 434 instances of it.  Ack!  But I forgot to allow for the fact that one of my central characters is named JUSTIN (of which there were 328 instances... he talks and people talk about him a lot).  JUST is also inside ADJUST.  In the end, after all the weeding was done and the other instances were tossed out, I wound up with only 32 instances of JUST all by itself.

Yesterday was a bear of a day between a 90 minute power outage and doing Christmas cards, but I did manage to tackle SAID.  Only got about halfway on that, but I managed to eradicate it 88 times so far.

Those four are my worst offenders.  Today, I'll finish SAID, then tackle KNEW/KNOW and THINK/THOUGHT.  And WHEN.  Then there'll be NOW and STILL.  Then we have EVEN. 

There are others, but those aren't as bad this time, so I will probably leave those alone.  Unless on my read-through they become irritating.  Then I'll go back and scrub those out, too.

After dinner last night, I told Hubs I needed to get back to work. Here's how that went...

Hubs:  But you've been working all day.
Me: This is supposed to release on Monday.
Hubs:  Call your publisher and ask for an extension.
Me: :laughing: I am the publisher.
Hubs: :laughing:  Exactly.
Me:  I called her and she said no.:more laughing:

Anyway, there's a lot of work still to be done, so I'm not sure I'll have this out on Monday like I promised.  Sorry about that.  On the bright side, it'll be better than it would be if I didn't bother doing this.

And now, back to work...

*That was a joke, folks.  If I was totally awesome, I wouldn't need to scrub crutch words out of every manuscript.  Derp.

Crutch Words... The Invasion

Hi All.  I know I've talked about crutch words before.  Well, here we go again.  With data.

This is the list of crutch words I've compiled for my own work.  The numbers are how many I had when I started weeding / how many I had left.  I skipped the * ones (unless JC says something on the next pass about them - like they're really irritating).

that 572/162
like 314/110
said 283/132
think 132/44
thought 156/48
though 39*
knew 92/38
know 233/82
wonder 31*
still 110/29
took 32/12
now 48*
realize 29/11
which 103/47
tilted head 15/6
shook head 50/25
by the time 5/4
shrug 15/10
felt 44/18
look 139/29

These are the ones I have to do today so I can get this out to JC:
really 88
seem 42
just 75
even 138

I compiled this from words my editor has pointed out over the course of several books and ones I've noticed on my own. She points them out or I notice them, they go on the list.

It's taken working over the course of 4 days to weed these out of a 63K manuscript.  Of course, by weeding, I mean deleting, rewording, replacing, etc..  And I didn't eradicate the entirety of any word because that would just be weird.

As always, I hope I've made this better.  JC will let me know if I screwed anything up on her next pass.  :fingers crossed:

As a reader, what words really stand out and irritate you after you've seen them over and over?

Last bit, I might be sending out ARCs of this to select people.  If you're interested, let me know in the comments. 

For THAT Matter

I'm at the point in editing where I'm scouring the manuscript for crutch words (overused common words authors sometimes throw down when they're too busy or too lazy to find better words). 

The first thing I do when I start looking for crutch words is make a list of words my editor has pointed out* (know/knew, wonder, took, still, just, 'by the time') and words I know for a fact I rely on too heavily during early drafts (said, thought, even, like, that).  Then I have Word count each of those so I know what I'm up against. 

This time, for some reason, the word THAT was in a 239 page manuscript 568 times.  WTF?  (And the count came after I'd already deleted a few.)  Which equals 2 and a third times per page.  AND I only counted instances of 'that' with a space after it, leaving out 'that's' and 'that.' and probably others. 

I discovered this THAT explosion about 6 last night.  I stopped work for the day at 8:30 (to go to bed) and I wasn't finished killing all the THAT.  Two and a half hours of finding and then deleting or rewording. There were like 12 on ONE PAGE.  (In my defense, it was during a conversation wherein one character dropped a lot of THATs in their dialogue.) 

Anyway, I probably have another hour left of THAT.  (You know, after I throw in the variations, I still have like 300 left.  Shoot me now.)

Ugh.

Not sure exactly how all of THAT ended up in the manuscript this time around.  It's usually way less.  :shrug:  I'll fix it.  I'll fix all of it.  But I probably won't have this back to the editor this morning, that's for damn sure. 

Well, I should get back at it.  I have some life things that need doing this morning before my Wednesday Mom call at 8.  I'll most likely be a raving lunatic by the time I send this up to the editor, but it will be done today.  You can bank on that. 

;o)


*She doesn't point out all the words she knows I know are a problem. She just says 'scour for crutch words' and then gives a few examples she noticed in the manuscript.  Not sure why she didn't pick on me mightily for THAT.  Probably being kind.  Or probably keeping herself from poking me in the eye with a pointy stick over something I should know better.

Crutch Words

Hello! 

As I said yesterday on The Writing Spectacle, I have crutch words.  To most, these are words writers use on a regular basis in place of better, richer words, ostensibly because they are lazy.  Or in my case, have a boatload of bad habits that I am disinclined to worry about during the drafting phases. 

Also, in yesterday's post, I said I'd talk about those words here today.  Yah, I'm airing my dirty laundry.  :shrug:  Shtuff happens.

Anyway, here are some of the words my editor came up with this time around...

just - 152/56
even - 155/39
like - 290/110
then - 221/43
know - 135/45
again - 159/60

The first number is how many instance of that word I found when I highlighted them all.  The second number is how many I found AFTER I'd finished tweaking.  It took me about 6 hours over 2 days of finding and rewording. 

She did point out some words that I didn't bother with.  When I did a search of 'took', for instance, I only found 39 of those.  Compared to 'like', 39 was a non-issue.  Plus, I'm tired and a little cranky.  I apologize if the word irritates you. 

I also apologize to anyone who isn't overly fond of the word 'like'.  (Which, btw, includes child-like, likeable, etc.)  But there were places I just couldn't bring myself to change.  And the sentence "I like him, but I don't like him like him' chalked up 3 all by itself.

I really do try to make these books the best they can be.  But, as I say in my front matter, "Any flaws or fiascos in grammar, punctuation, spelling, research, etc. are entirely the fault of the author.  My editor probably pointed them out, and the author was too stubborn to change them."  I am kinda stubborn sometimes, as AWE will attest to.  

Anyway, I hope that gives you a little insight into the pre-publication process.  Authors really are out there working to make your reading experience as awesome as you hope it will be.  Thanks for reading.

And for an update... Once I read through this one more time, checking to make sure I didn't insert errors while I was fixing errors, I will be able to upload this for sale.  Check back throughout the week to see where that process is at.  When I know it's live on Amazon, you'll know it.