Here’s the six words for December:

• THAT — 894 to start, 830 to finish — removed 64
  • I freely admit I got a little lazy, but I just think things sound better with “that” in them so it’s hard for me to remove it.
• JUST — 311 to start, 249 to finish — removed 62
• VERY — 194 to start, 179 to finish — removed 15
  • Most of these were actually forms of “every” or “delivery”.
• WHICH — 109 to start, 92 to finish — removed 17
  • Removing “which” is hard, because I usually replace it with “that”, “just”, or “only”, all of which are words I’m trying to use less often. It’s annoying. My goal is to not have more than one “which” per printed page once I put out the print version.
• REALLY — 100 to start, 88 to finish — removed 12
  • I’m still trying not to use “really” as an adverb, and instead only use it in dialogue. Success has been mixed.
• ONLY – 110 to start, 104 to finish — removed 6
  • I have a tendency to replace “just” with “only”, which is why I do “just” second and “only” sixth. And whenever I try to replace “only”, it usually ends up being “just” or “that”. Conundrum.

Artwork is done for December, and she’s working on the final cover for the fourth print volume. I’ll have all four for sale at GASP if you want to buy them, and there’ll probably be a discount. The GASP vendor fair is on Saturday March 22, 11am-3pm Eastern Time, and it’s free for anyone 21 or older, so you don’t even have to attend the event if you just want to come by and get some books.