Here’s an exercise that could be good for both your manuscript and your writing: go through your book and try to replace or reduce the usage of the words you use most. (THREAD)

These words can be anything you overuse or depend on. Common ones are:
- just
- very
- suddenly
- only
- moment
- sigh

The purpose of trying to replace overused words is to make your writing less repetitive, but you can also ask yourself: What am I really trying to convey? You might find synonyms, or you’ll rewrite something small and make it much more effective, vivid, and memorable.

When I did this with my writing, I did a huge find-and-replace session for the phrase “for a moment,” and I recognized that moments could be simply implied or established through sentence structure. I became even more intentional with HOW I described scenes and dialogue.

You might expand your vocabulary. You might not. But you’ll probably learn a little more about your own writing style and become more acquainted with your strengths and weaknesses.

I also write other threads about editing/writing! You can find them here: https://twitter.com/stephiesque/status/1072236805423017985