I know what you’re thinking. “Just” is just too boring of a word to be special. What fun is there in a simple word like just?
Just is just one of those words I just have an issue with.
Just can be either an adjective or an adverb. The just I want to talk about is the adverb, and the one I have trouble with overusing.
It can mean:
1) exactly
2) very recently; in the immediate past
3) barely; by a little
4) simply; only; no more than
5) really; absolutely
As well as a few other variations.
Is it any wonder I (as well as others) overuse it with so many definitions?
We authors have lists of weasel words. These are words that creep into our stories over and over and over and over. Most often, they aren’t needed at all.
“Just” is one of my weasel words. I just throw it around willy-nilly apparently. I have a great critique partner who just draws a line through them. (Waving to you, Suzanne.) Then, I can just think if I really want that just or not. Though it might not be needed, sometimes I just keep it for emphasis or just for the cadence or rhythm of the sentence. But when I overuse just or any other word like it, it just loses it’s punch.
There is a long list of these weasel words that a lot of us authors have in common. Words like — very, look, that, up, down, back, and the list goes on and on and on… Then each author adds their own pet weasel words that they have an issue with. Strode is another one I need to be careful not to over use.
I have many other words that I could lament on, but I’ll just stick with just.
COURTING HER AMISH HEART is a contemporary romance, the first in the Prodigal Daughters series.
A doctor or an Amish wife? She can choose to be only one…
Kathleen Yoder comes home after fourteen years in the Englisher world. Practicing medicine means sacrifice—no Amish man will want a doctor for a wife. Widowed Noah Lambright offers a cottage as her new clinic, seeing how much Kathleen’s skills can help their community. But as their friendship deepens, could love and family become more than a forbidden dream?
#ChristianRomance #HistoricalRomance #Romance
MARY DAVIS is a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. She has five titles releasing in 2018; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection in January 2018, Courting Her Amish Heart in March 2018, The Widow’s Plight in July 2018, Courting Her Secret Heart September 2018, & “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection in December 2018. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.
Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-three years and two cats. She has three adult children and one incredibly adorable grandchild. Find her online at:
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