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Can you make them chortle? For unpublished authors...

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Nicole Wilson

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Karen Gray

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I use it more than I should, but it's one of the key words I look out for when I'm editing, along with that, very, and had.
Well 14 pages into book 4 I have used it 6 times and half of those are in speech... That's not too bad actually. I don't use very at all in my work, other than in dialogue. Never in the narration.

On the point of 'had' I would rather have one too many 'had's than one too many 'she'd's. Contractions are a bad habit hole to fall into.
 
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Amber Zade

Guest
I use it too much. 'Just' has become a disclaimer of sorts. I use 'that' all the time. I have started to stop myself and ask if it's really needed.
 
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Jennifer Stone

Guest
It's a just word, it has its place, it has its meaning. To say that one can be detrimental to your work, over any other word, is just absurd. What's next? You can't use 'the' or 'and'? Maybe this is just a ploy to see just how flexible a writers vocabulary is. Just.
 
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Meerkat

Guest
Hmm . . . I can see the writer's point.

I searched a story of my own that I am currently editing and found it six times. This is interesting, as it's about a formerly submissive wife who's breaking free of control. And looking at the context, none of them are used as the writer says women do.
 
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Jason Byrne

Guest
Lemme check mine. It just constitutes 336 of 269,000 words. And even then it is just used in dialogue, and to say that something is just [preposition] to something. Or that an action is just. But I just say that a couple times.
 
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Jason Byrne

Guest
No way. I go out of my way in order not to use more noticeable words like vision and rose, and that went unnoticed.
 
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Can you make them chortle? For unpublished authors...

Twitter #Askagent

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