Day 28 - Crutch and Filter Words

The Importance of Word Choice
On Day 12, we talked about Chapter Pacing and made sure each chapter flowed into the next, but pacing is also affected by the length of words, sentences, and paragraphs. Longer or more difficult or unusual words and sentences force a reader to slow down. The brain shifts from reading to deciphering. Deciphering might be fine at the beginning of a story when we are world building and introducing characters, but we don't want to slow down readers who are cruising along imagining the big fight scene at the climactic ending of the story. Crutch words, due to their repetitive nature, and filter words, which are often extraneous, can also pull a reader out of the scene. Therefore, whenever possible, you may want to actively try to eliminate them.
 
What are Crutch Words?
Crutch words are those certain words, phrases, emotions, characteristics, etc. that we unwittingly overuse when we write. We all have our own personal Crutch words that we lean on (Get it? Lean on? Crutch words?) or tend toward using while we are writing. I find that when I'm doing sprints to get as many words on the page as I can in a short amount of time, my crutch words come out in droves. A good editor will spot those for you, but as you re-read your work, you may begin to spot them on your own. Two of mine are “giggle” and "sigh." I've also found that my characters roll their eyes a lot.
 
In my current work in progress, my main character Elizabeth Aguera giggles a lot, but what is interesting about that is, if I had to describe my character, she would not be a character who giggles. She's a detective who lost a young daughter in an accident and who investigates murdered or missing girls during her annual vacation. She's a serious, thoughtful person. She doesn't giggle. Yet, when I search for the word "giggle" in my novel, Detective Aguera seems to always be on the inside of a joke.
 
In works that I've edited for other authors, I've found, "for the first time ever” or “best ever” used multiple times throughout the stories. In fact, adverbs are often culprits when it comes to overused crutch words. Knowing this, you should keep an eye out for these words: basically, practically, almost, especially.
 
What are Filter Words
Filter words are similar to crutch words in that they are extraneous and often not needed to support the narrative of a story. They are often a sign of telling rather than showing (see Day 20 for more information about Showing vs Telling), and they prevent the reader from really experiencing the story from their personal point of view. Instead, they are viewing the story through the character's point of view.
 
Adverbs may be filter words or crutch words, as are weak verbs and nouns that lack specificity or allow confusion when a sentence is read. Adverbs can be found by searching your manuscript for "ly." While not all adverbs end in -ly, it's a good way to eliminate a big share of them. Weak verbs include words like get or got and almost always have a stronger counterpart verb that can replace them. Nouns that lack specificity include stuff, thing, and that. These also usually have stronger words that can be used.
 
In Day 27, we looked at Voice and Tense and discussed "-ing" words, but if you didn't get a chance to complete the exercise for that day, you should also search for "ing" to check and see if there are stronger options than the word being used. I've included it in the instructions below, just in case.

Exercise 1: Find and Eliminate Your Personal Crutch Words and Phrases

1. Create a new page in the Copyedit section called "Crutch and Filter Words."
   If you need help creating a new page in Microsoft OneNote, check here.
   
2. Add the following Titles to the page using Heading 1 style:
   Crutch Words
   Filter Words
   
3. Under the Crutch Words title add the following Titles using the Heading 2 style:
   Words or phrases I suspect I overuse:
   Words or Phrases Discovered:
4. Create a check list under "Word or phrases I suspect I overuse" of all the words or phrases which you can think of that maybe you overuse. (You may have only one that you can think of ten - write them all down.)
   If you need help creating a check list, check here.
   
5. Browse to http://wordcounter.net and follow the steps below to create a check list under "Words of Phrases Discovered:"
   
6. Search for each one of the words or phrases that you put into your checklists and determine how you can fix the repetitive nature by either deleting or revising.
   

 
Steps for using WordCounter.net

1. Browse to http://wordcounter.net.
2. Copy and paste 3000 - 5000 words from your story into the text box.
3. On the right-hand panel, review the Keyword Density - if you have high density words, add them to your list as instructed above.
4. Under Keyword Density, change the density level to 2x - if you have high density words, add them to your list as instructed above.
5. Under Keyword Density, change the density level to 3x - if you have high density words, add them to your list as instructed above.
   Do not include proper names of characters or places.

 
Exercise 2: Eliminate your Filter Words and Phrases

1. On "Crutch and Filter Words" page, under the "Filter Words" title, create a 2 x 8 table.
   If you need help creating a new table in Microsoft OneNote, check here.
   
2. Add the column titles and resize them on the page:
   Words(20%)
   Ways to fix them(80%)
3. Create a check list using the Crutch Words Checklist below.
4. Search each one of the words in the checklists and determine how best to fix them.

 
Crutch Words Checklist

• Very | quite | just | really | truly | actually | literally | almost - find better verbs that add the emphasis these words are meant to add or cut them
• Basically | practically | almost | suddenly - find words that provide more specificity or cut them
• Get | got | have | had | went (weak verbs -  find better verbs)
• That | thing | stuff | It - find words that provide more specificity or cut them
• -ly - change an adverb/verb combination to a stronger verb but don't eliminate all adverbs - save them when you want the extra punch; otherwise cut where overused
• -ing  - replace weak verbs found around ing words

 
More Resources
See Anne Allen and Kathy Steinemann's post about filter words and phrases for even more detail about this topic, along with 80 alternative words and phrases that can help you unravel how to make the corrections.
https://annerallen.com/2017/06/filter-words-and-phrases-to-avoid-in-writing/
 
Take a look at Diana Urban's post where you can find 43 words similar to the ones I have provided to catch even more filter words.
https://dianaurban.com/words-you-should-cut-from-your-writing-immediately
 
TIP for Microsoft Word users:
Use Search and Replace with highlighting for all the filter words, then read back through your story again. You can use different colors of highlighting to mark different types of crutch words. See my Highlighter post for details.
 
DOWNLOAD:  Filter and Crutch Words Worksheet
Template Instructions
 
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