Editing Stuff and Junk

It's the Tuesday after Labor Day here in the states.  Do not get me started on the whole Labor Day thing.  Suffice it to say, I spent a large portion of the day working - mainly because I took all of Sunday off.  It was awesome.  But awesome days do not get books ready for publication. 

So, anyway, I got the AWE edits done with the exceptions of my 'crutch words'.  I'll do a wholesale eradication of those today.  I also had a list of typos an early reader sent over.  I took care of all those boo-boos, too. 

(BTW, a macaron is similar but different from a macaroon.  It's a fancy-pants, French cookie I saw on The Food Network.)

What are crutch words?  They're the words a writer sprinkles throughout their manuscript because they're too lazy to find a better way to say something.  Supposedly.  I think it's less a matter of lazy than of habit, but that's me.  Tomorrow, over on Outside the Box, I'll give you a list of my crutch words and exactly how many of each were still in my manuscript after umpteen edits.  My worst crutch words are 'like' and 'then'.  (AWE would say my worst is 'just', but the numbers don't lie. LOL)

Personally, I don't notice them unless someone points them out.  In an earlier edit, I did notice I was using the word 'ass' a lot.  I've changed that.  I think.  I'll have to do a count on those to make sure. 

Anyway... yeah, I know, I said that already... today will be devoted to getting rid of that crap and then formatting.  If all goes well, I should have this ready to go in the next couple days.  Which will be a relief.  Spread your wings and fly, little bird.  I have other birds to fledge. 

If you're a writer, what are some of your crutch words?  If you're a reader, what words stick out in a book for you that you think writers use too often?