If you’ve ever edited a manuscript, you’ll know that it takes many drafts and lots of re-writing to shape said manuscript into a readable book. Amongst those drafts should be a pass that includes finding a word that is repeated so much that you could turn it into a drinking game.

I call these instances The Repeats; a list of words that I know my writing-self likes to cram into sentences, but my editor-self knows shouldn’t be there.

My personal Repeats list includes…

• Though
• Realize/Realized
• Took
• Stood
• Surprise/Surprised
• Doubt

These are the words that flow during a first draft and then survive the rest of the drafts because they’re so ingrained in my writing voice that I don’t even notice them.

When looking at these words amongst others, it’s easy to think that they’ve been used sparingly, but with a Repeats draft added during the revision process, it’s plain…