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Thursday, July 9, 2015

Tightening Just a Bit

      A couple of times readers of my manuscript have suggested that I tighten up the language, and I was never sure what that really meant.
     Recently an AROHO sister, Kristen Ringman, posted an interesting piece about the overuse of the word JUST which caught my attention. I know I use that word a lot. The writer explained how the word is often used by women writers to soften their expression or to seek permission to even have something to express.





      I decided to search my work-in-progress for the word just and found that I had used it 277 times out of 123,000 words. I checked each instance carefully. While some were justified I eliminated more than 100 of them that served simply no purpose.
      I believe that must be a good example of tightening. Like kegal exercises for the female writer. Do I dare now do a search for VERY...


just
jəst/
adjective
  1. 1.
    based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair.
    "a just and democratic society"


adverb
  1. 1.
    exactly.
    "that's just what I need"
    synonyms:exactlypreciselyabsolutelycompletelytotallyentirelyperfectly,utterlywhollythoroughly, in all respects; More
  2. 2.
    very recently; in the immediate past.
    "I've just seen the local paper"
    synonyms:a moment ago, a second ago, a short time ago, very recently, not long ago
    "I just saw him"