The six words I always have to remove from stories during the editing process are:

• that
• which
• just
• very
• really
• only

They’re the ones I tend to overuse. However, I think I’m getting better.

• that — 486 to 430 (removed 56)
• which — 46 to 46 (removed 0)
• just — 176 to 153 (removed 23) — includes forms of “adjust”
• very — 125 to 122 (removed 3) — includes forms of “every”
• really — 64 to 60 (removed 4)
• only — 55 to 54 (removed 1)

“That” is a tough one to get rid of, but I did the best I could. The document is 92 pages long, which averages out to about 4.6 instances per page. That’s not so bad, really.

This is all just to say that I’ve finished assembling and proofreading the content file for the January edition of the holiday stories. Now I just need a series title, and I can start having covers made. The book will come out on time next year; you can be sure of that.