Just, But, So....Get The Heck Out of Here! You're Ruining My Story!

"I'm JUST a poor girl, I need no sympathy. Because I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low. Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me, to me."

(Okay, how many of you actually sang that in your head? Hee, hee, hee).

Back to the point of this blog, which is: No matter how you dice it, no matter how any books an author has written, there will ALWAYS be those repeater words and phrases that need to be cut out of the manuscript.

Always.

We all have them--those go-to words that litter our first drafts but also happen to be invisible to the writer's eye. It isn't until someone points them out that we go, "Holy crap! How did I not see this before? I've read this draft a hundred times!"

This is where a great beta reader comes in handy. If you don't have a beta reader or two, then get one. I can't express enough how much EVERYONE needs a trusty beta reader. In fact, one of my beta readers has actually been promoted to ALPHA reader because she's that darn awesome. I couldn't imagine writing a book, any book, without her reading it first. She's constantly catching things I miss and causing me to feel foolish. I love her so much.

For me, a few repeater words I find myself using over and over are JUST, BUT, and SO. Now, don't get me wrong. There are cases in which these words are needed, so don't go deleting every single one of them from your story. What I'm talking about is EXCESS and UNNECESSARY uses of the words to such a point that they become the only thing the reader sees. That's not good. 

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