Do you have words you come back to again and again in your story? Most of us do. Especially in a first draft when the goal is just to get your ideas down on the page. But are those words helpful and building toward your authorial voice, or are they actually slowly dragging on readers?

These words are some of the most common crutches for writers. They help you limp along the page, but they’re not doing you any favors. Each has their time and place, so I’m not suggesting you cut them from your manuscript completely. But it may be worth reviewing your use of each to ensure you’re creating the best reader experience and editing those that don’t fit the bill.

Suddenly

You’re trying to build suspense and surprise in your novel, and suddenly feels like the word to reach for when you’re in the trenches writing a scene full of action. But after a couple of “suddenly”s, your character doesn’t seem to be in as much danger. Instead, it makes them come across as unobservant.

While suddenly has a place in your novel, it probably shouldn’t come up more than once per act. Dropping them in during the first draft is fine, then you can use a search feature to find them and narrow down the most useful ones. Great alternatives for “suddenly” that can be used occasionally as well are “without warning,” “unexpectedly,” and “hastily.” But there are many more options that can only be used once in a book each but leave an impression: “like the clappers,” “on the double,” “at warp speed,” “out of the blue,” etc.

Realize

A novel with an engaging plot is always going to have characters working actively toward solutions that are difficult at first. But the exact moment a character comes up with a plan is often quite uneventful and delays action unnecessarily. It leads to an overuse of “realize” and many other epiphany-type phrases. You get one “realize” per 50,000 words. In the other instances, it’s more engaging for readers if you take action or have a dialogue.

Wonder

“Wonder” is the other side of the same coin as “realize” in most texts. Our own lives are so full of wonder and consideration and inspiration that it feels normal to write about these things for readers. But the reality is that talking about the fact that your character is wondering is about as taboo as actually saying “goodbye” on a TV phone call. It’s unnecessary. Instead, consider using punctuation to do the job for you by writing thoughts as dialogue.

Feel

The word “feel” should be reserved for the sixth sense and tactile sensations that are foreign to the reader. The phrase “the couch was velvety smooth as I glided my fingertips down the arm” is much more effective than “the couch felt like velvet.” The same can be said for emotional feelings and physical sensations in the body. If you want to make your readers feel the same way as your characters, describe it instead of naming it.

Seem

How often in novels do things seem to be the case? The vast majority of the time I see it, the word “seem” is used to describe a statement of fact. It doesn’t seem like anything at all. It just is. Seem should be reserved for cases in which the narrator knows more another the character and is describing something they perceive but is actually fraudulent. Any other usage is fluff. Instead, say what it is!

Look

Sometimes “look” can be used in the same incorrect manner as seem. But more often than not, I find look being used to describe something unsaid between two characters that needs inferring. In this case, it’s often more effective to use a proper facial expression’s name: grin, smirk, sneer, pout, frown, squint, wince, etc.

And if you’re using “look” as a character action before describing something they’ve seen in another part of the room, it’s okay. You can just describe what they’ve seen and where in the room it is. Readers will intuit that they moved their eyes in that direction.

Somehow

More often than not, “somehow” is used by authors as a shortcut for actions their characters are taking. Somehow they get onto a roof. Somehow they get the lock open. Somehow they’ve gotten lost. But you’re the writer. You get to decide if a particular action is important or not. If it is, take a moment to show the reader. If it isn’t, you’re welcome to just skip that part and give readers a summary. Save “somehow” for moments of astonishment that cannot be explained.

Adverbs of Emphasis

Okay, yes. I’m cheating now. The rest is a whole category that has given adverbs a bad name in writing. Each of these (and many more unmentioned) should have extremely limited use :

• Basically

• Just

• Literally

• Almost

• Actually

• Definitely

• Really

• Very

• Quite

• Probably

• Might

• Truly

• Essentially

• Absolutely

• Seriously

• Totally

• Honestly

• Obviously

The reason why these words need a hard limit is partially because there are so many to choose from that can be interchanged. The other and most important is that they’re generally lazy and mostly useless. They’re used to put emphasis on a particular word rather than choosing the more specific or emphatic word already available in the English language. So, use “languid” instead of “truly lazy,” “weary” in place of “honestly tired,” and “iridescent” rather than “especially colorful.”

How to Find Your Crutch Words

There’s a decent chance you already know your crutch words. Or, if you didn’t, perhaps you found them here. But one tool I like to use for this in my developmental edits is a word cloud. Copy and paste your entire novel into a word cloud generator and see which words come out the largest. If they’re not a, the, said, and, your characters’ names, or an important concept tied to your text, it’s likely they’re crutch words. Then you can search your manuscript for them and change some to help alleviate the problem. I’d aim for absolutely no more than once per chapter.

In summation, there’s nothing inherently wrong with using the words on this list. But they are common offenders for overuse, and knowing your writing weaknesses will help you improve and land an agent. If you find that you’re needing help overcoming those weaknesses, that’s a great reason to reach out to a book coach. They can help you strategize around weaknesses in a session or two. And if you need help finding your weaknesses, that’s what an editor is for. Using these tools and more to bring your manuscript up to par is part of the game.