What are your crutch words that you use in your writing?

The Chatters
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You know those words that you overly use way too much in your writing. Those words that when you edit, you find that there are way too many.

So, what are your commonly used crutch words?

My Turn:

  1. glanced or glancing
  2. looked or looking
  3. sighed or sighing or sighs
  4. stared or staring or stares
  5. walked or walking

I know there are so many more, but that is all I got for now.
What about you guys?

@Akje
@alenatenjo
@JojoDahlia
@EmiliaFrost
@NotARussianBot
@NatilladeCoco
@CoffeebyNight
@copyedit
@Churro
@TheTigerWriter

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maybe
probably
seem

There are probably more, but those are the only ones that come to mind right now.

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That’s fine. :slightly_smiling_face:
So long as you can think of as many as you can name.

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  • snickered (all my mischevious characters tend to snicker)
  • sighed
  • massaged his/her temples (all of them do that, when they’re annoyed)
  • scrubbed her/his fingers through her/his hair (again, common when they’re annoyed)
  • hissed/growled/snarled (tbh I love writing characters who are perpetually annoyed, but I need to find new words lol)
  • that (AAAAAAAAAA this is such a problem. it’s a word that can be used in excess anywhere, and sometimes a sentence can do with a few less "that"s)
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All of the above really…

SD

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Yeah, it’s hard to pinpoint with this one.

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just
still (this one is recent and idk why I started doing it :sweat_smile: )
grin, grinned, grinning
smirking, smirked
played (like, “a smile played across her lips”)
yet
nodded (another recent one)

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Mine “smirk”

What if there was something in between…like, a smicker XD

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For my current wip
Groan
Sigh
Think
Holiday
Seriously?

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  • Turned. My characters are constantly facing the wrong way for the blocking of a scene or needing to move toward or away from something. I need to learn to imply movement more.
  • Reached. See above.
  • Enough. I cannot express how much I annoy myself with this word while simultaneously being apparently unable to get rid of it.
  • Just. Mostly in personal text rather than creative writing, but it does make appearances there, too.
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Really
Fuck (I’m Aussie please don’t judge :joy: )
Even
Seem
Sigh/ed
Smile/d
Nodded

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Interesting crutch word

Are they going on Holiday?

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13

I have a tendancy to overuse pronouns like “it” “she” “he” to the point it’s hard to follow. This video goes over a bit of how to wean off your crutch words.

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Just when everyone thinks it’s finally over, The Age of Scorpius rears its ugly head once again! (>‿◠):v:

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Audra Winters, coming in with a steel chair!

Book drama is a lot more fun if you see it as a professional wrestling storyline lol

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It really is a professional wrestling storyline most of the time! (*＾-‘) 乃

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I wanted to try something straight forward and silly so I’m working on a kind of ridiculous trope heavy Christmas RomCom. Her family is pretty much considering November to the New Year “The holidays” and she’s not a fan of them. It’s specifically a lot of her groaning about them.

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Feel free to come back if you think of anything.