Definition
Crutch words are the verbal habits that sneak into your writing without you noticing. Every writer has them. Maybe you put 'just' in every other sentence, or you can't write a paragraph without 'really' or 'actually.' Individually, these words are fine. The problem is frequency. When 'just' appears forty times in a chapter, it stops being invisible and starts becoming noise.
Why It Matters
Your crutch words are invisible to you but not to your readers. They accumulate like dust - one 'very' is nothing, but thirty per chapter makes your prose feel repetitive and unfocused. Identifying your personal crutch words is one of the most efficient edits you can make, because fixing them tightens every page at once.
Types of Crutch Words
Common Mistakes
First drafts are for getting the story down. Hunt crutch words during revision. Worrying about them while drafting will slow you to a crawl.
Standard lists are a starting point, but your crutch words are personal. Use a word frequency tool on your manuscript to find your specific patterns.
These are real words with real uses. The goal isn't zero occurrences - it's intentional use. Sometimes 'just' is the right word. The problem is when it's always the default word.
Try It Yourself
Run a word frequency count on your latest chapter or story (most word processors can do this, or paste it into any free word counter tool). Find your top five most-used non-essential words. Now do a find-and-replace pass for each one, asking yourself at every instance: does this word earn its place here? Delete at least half of them and read the result aloud.
Discover the words you didn't know you were overusing
Novelium's Writing Analytics tracks word frequency across your entire manuscript and highlights your personal crutch words - the ones you use so often they've become invisible to you but not to your readers.