Words. You can’t be a writer without them. We use them to convey our thoughts and feelings, to create worlds and the characters living in them. Words give us our voice, but they can also muddle it.

Just because you can write using all the words doesn’t mean that you should.

Being too wordy can actually be a bad thing. It weakens sentences and takes the impact out of our paragraphs. This potentially stops something good from being great.

By removing unnecessary words, you’re left with strong, clear prose.

But some of these words add depth and character, you might argue. Yes, they do. In the right sentence, in the right paragraph, at the right point in the story. Any other time it’s likely to be cluttering up your sentences.

This isn’t a complete checklist. Just as we all have our own personal Repeats list, you may wish…