To be or not to be...NOT "to be"

Okay y'all. Ya girl is editing Ace, writing a short story for an anthology, and generally roasting her ass off.

While editing Ace, I took out my crutch words. You know the ones. They add nothing to the narrative, but you're obscenely fond of them. I've taken "just" out of my vocabulary and simply won't add it anywhere in my books now. I use "actually" a lot. That gets the axe. "That". "Had". "Then". "So". 

I also stumbled upon a new favorite: to be. Are they, or aren't they? FFS

I'm not even going to delve into all the "to be"s I homicided in book 3 of my Plot Twist series. But it took a long damn minute to do.

You see, we evolve. And that means when we can't reach the old standbys...we fill in something else. 

Word of warning:  You can create crutch words or phrases--no matter where you are in your writing career. 

Embarrassing as fuck. But human nature.

When I'm in the flow, I write to create. Adding in chapter numbers comes in later. I did that today. I'm sure some have a fancy spreadsheet with all the info. I use a colored index card to write down chapter number and page. Quick, easy, and doable for me.

These books came so quickly that the first edit is akin to gazing upon an unattractive infant. It's appearance is not quite what you expected, but you love it anyway.

Story is solid. Spelling in on-point. But correcting usage, homonyms, and grammar mistakes take time. 

Don't get me wrong. Not knocking it. I love it. I feel as though I've created a deep bond with these characters, and I absolutely revel in it.

My literary fam.

Am I procrastinating working on both the editing and writing by typing up this blog?