We all use them. Crutch words. In fact, I might end up using one of mine while writing the initial draft of this blog entry.
"What are crutch words, Jen?" you might wonder. To that, I must reply: Crutch words are those that tend to crop up in your writing multiple times. They aren't exactly your "favourite" words, but they are your defaults. They're also not simple fillers like "just" and "that", but they, too, create repetition issues. One of my crutch words is "tend". And, look, I have already used it in this blog entry! See how easy it is to insert these words without really thinking about it? I tend to not be conscious of my overuse of crutch words until I am in full-on editing mode. Even then, crutch words can be missed when they're moderately sprinkled throughout the text. They aren't words that your average reader might pick up on in terms of overuse, but a stealthy ninja of a reviewer might. So, how can you identify and rectify this issue? 1. Separate your mere filler words from your crutches. Your filler words will appear quite frequently, and you'll notice them within a quick read-through. Your crutch words, however, will be a little bit more difficult to suss out. Look at your dialogue tags. How often are you using "said"? "Said" isn't exactly a filler word, but it is one we often default to when crafting dialogue tags. You might also find your characters using "So,..." and "Well,..." frequently in their dialogue. Yes, these are crutch words. Crutch words tend to occur in batches and within phrases, too. "You know" and "Like I was saying" are examples of crutch phrases. While these can be generously spread out in actual dialogue (to make it sound more natural), these should appear quite infrequently within the narrative. First-person narratives are a bit of a struggle when it comes to using these crutch words, so be extra mindful of these when writing in first-person. If you're feeling lost, give WordCounter a try! 2. Find other means of creating emphasis. When we speak and write, we tend to use crutch words to indicate emphasis. If you suddenly find yourself using "suddenly" a lot, come up with a clever and catchy way to rephrase it. Example: Crutch: Suddenly, the serene night sky became engulfed in vicious orange-yellow flames. (Ugh, I hate to admit that this is from something I wrote...) Revised: The night sky, serene just moments before, became engulfed in vicious orange-yellow flames. Eliminating this crutch word allows you to play with sentence structure and create vivid imagery without shoving emphasized words into your readers' eyes. 3. Eliminate excessive adverbs. Basically, you might you these frequently in dialogue. Adverbs are wonderful methods of modification, but they can become overly abundant. If you find yourself using "very" to modify a word, search for a more descriptive synonym. You want words that will catch your reader's attention, and picking the right adverbs can help. 4. Understand why you rely on these crutches. When we speak, we often need to pause in order to articulate our thoughts. Thoughts and their resulting actions can occur in less than 150 milliseconds. However, when we write, we need to slow our thoughts down so that our fingers can type or write out words. Since we tend to speak and think more quickly than we type, we might be simply defaulting to our crutches without much cognitive processing. We also rely on crutches when we simply cannot find a better-fitting word. This is why a crucial step in self-revising is to pay attention to repetitive and redundant words and phrases. If you catch yourself doing this while you are writing but don't want to pause to search for a synonym, highlight your crutch and return to it while editing. 5. Sometimes, less is more!
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