Even Though It Rained . . .

I've been working on edits on my manuscript. Handy thing to use is the "Find & Replace" option in the edit tab. You put the word you're trying to find in the window, and type whatever you need to replace it with. However, I usually don't chose this last part, because I may not want to replace it with just another word. I may simply want to delete it. Or, there may be something else that works better.

Take the word "even". It's why I used the title for this blog: Even though. These two words can easily be replaced with the word Although.

As I went through the manuscript, hitting the find button, I realized I used the word even way too often.

How often? Over 100 times. In fact it was right around 150-160 times, I used it. I probably illuminated more than 100 words completely. The word even is a strange word. When we talk, we use it a lot, so it isn't surprising that a lax writer would go ahead and stick it into their work. Why? Because it's just a habit, or because you don't realize you're doing it.

Because we use it as we speak, I felt that the 20, or so times I used it in dialogue could be left alone. I took out some, merely because I could see that taking it out didn't change anything.

I went through several times with this "find & replace" for other words. I found I was using the word past for passed! I found it used wrong 25 times. That would have caused my editor sleepless nights wondering if she'd made a mistake with taking me on.

Another series of over-used words or phrases I tend to fall on are:

I could see; I saw that; seemed to; just

I know that I have problems with using these lazy phrases, and going through the mss. just to find each and every one of them took me hours. This morning alone, I think I spent maybe 1 1/2 hours or so just to go through, check the usage, if I could delete it I would. I was also marking down how many times I'd used this word, just to see where my problems lie. Well, this was a good thing to check.

I don't know if I have problems with any other words, but these were good to illuminate from my manuscript.