I’m waiting for some ‘bigger picture’ comments on the Witch Novel so thought I might as well proceed with some ‘easy’ editing. This involves searching the document for weasel words* and my own personal pet words (notably ‘dark’ and ‘pale’. God, I love those words). Weasel words include things like: suddenly, finally, merely, huge, most, small, something, sometimes” etc. My record so far for use is about 140 and I did manage to cut it down to about half that.

With each book, I discover a new pet word. In A TERRIBLE BEAUTY, I used ‘realized’ over 150 times and my copy editor made me hack away at them. In the Witch Novel, the words du jour are “merely” and “quite”. I managed to prune a chunk of each, but sometimes they really are just the word I want to use. I let characters use them in dialogue, so that lets me leave some of them in with a clear conscience.

I still have about 10 words to check for and I’m trying to be strong.

But sometimes, damnit, ‘dark’ is quite perfect and to eliminate it merely because it’s on someone’s list is something I just don’t want to do.

So I don’t.

• thanks to Matt Bell in “REFUSE TO BE DONE” for that term. And no, I’m still not rewriting the novel from scratch.