Crutch words are words that a writer depends on more than they probably should. These words will be different from one person to another, but they all hold the same frustrations no matter who writes them. During the process of writing your book, you may find yourself creating a pattern of words or phrases. It isn’t necessary to fix these patterns during the first draft, but removing them becomes an essential cornerstone when editing later on.
If you open your document and find that you’re repeating yourself or that a word appears multiple times in a single sentence or paragraph, it’s time to consider their removal. Words that appear more than necessary are a crutch. They aren’t needed by your readers in order for them to understand the plot. They’re only there to serve as a tool-to push your story forward or possibly to break past a writer’s block. Which is fine, but they cannot appear in the final draft.
Search and Destroy
Before you send your work off to beta readers, you should do a handful of edits on your own work. Start off by doing a full read and highlighting areas that need clarification. During this first read, you should be able to see your repeating crutch words. You can either highlight these words now or make a list to come back to later. For the sake of keeping to your current task, keep a list and come back to it once you’ve finished.
After you’ve done a full read, use the search function in your document to find the words on your list. Read the sentence they’re a part of and then read the sentence as if the word wasn’t there. If it reads well without that word, delete it. If the sentence won’t make any sense without that crutch word, it’s time to open a thesaurus.
Find and Replace
The words that commonly show up again and again that cannot be removed completely are ones such as look, see, hear and smell. The five senses are a valuable part of writing. The better you can describe a scene with each sense, the more likely you’ll be able to thrust your readers right into the middle of the action. By using a thesaurus, you can keep your reader involved without confusing them.
Well Known Crutch Words
- That – this is a horrible word that turns up more times than it should. These instances can generally be removed completely without harming the book.
- Really – another word that can be removed without hindering the finished book.
- Just – the removal of this word will depend on its context. In most cases, it can be removed.
As mentioned before, crutch words will differ person to person. By eliminating or replacing them, you’re tightening your work. The more you tighten the more polished and cleaned your finished product will become. Once you finish editing for crutch words, it’s time to read over the document again. Look with a critical eye and highlight any trouble area. Repeat as is necessary.
Nicole Thomas - I've been writing for Suite 101 since 2010 and focus on topics such as publishing, online branding, marketing and self employment. These ...
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