1. Very – Ladies and gentlemen, the most useless word in the English language!
2. Just – Just is the plain, unsalted potato chip of writing.
3. So – You think you should use this word as a conjunction, but you so shouldn’t.
4. Really – For real.
5. Literally – Reserved for Rob Lowe.
I’ve listed these in the order of personal annoyance. When reading for Apex Magazine the overuse of these words are typically a red flag calling out “Newbie author at work here.”
On an unrelated note, I was a guest for a recent episode of the Sequential Spirits podcast. Give it a listen. It is 80 minutes of me facing down my arch nemesis, Tressa Bowling.
http://traffic.libsyn.com/beaucouppop/SequentialEp7.mp3 (Opens to Libsyn player)
That. For example: “I wanted to tell you that Jane is coming to dinner.” vs “I wanted to tell you Jane is coming to dinner.”
I’m horrible about putting just, so, and that everywhere in my writing. I let them pepper themselves into my first draft, then delete them with glee during revisions.
“Jane is coming to dinner.”