The L word

The L word was literally destroying my writing. I just found out that I literally used the word "literally" too often. A friend literally told me that I literally used the word "literally" like forty-nine times in one hundred pages, which would be a liberal use of literally He literally said  it was "distracting."  He did not use the word "literally when he said that.

I went back and hit the "find" button and sure enough I found the forty-nine uses of the L word".
I thought the "F word" was bad in writing, but for me the "L word" might as well be fatal. Well, not literally.

In my defense, it was a science fiction novel set in the year 2112. I wanted readers to understand that objects were really (yes, I said the R word instead of the L word) defying gravity. There are clones in the book who actually do look very similar to each other. (I used the A word that time). There are holograms in the book that do resemble real life. (I made it through without an adverb. Wasn't that nice?

Indeed the only word I used more than the l word, was "indeed," and of course the word "I." Calling the word "I," the "I word" doesn't quite make sense of course.

I deleted "literally" 46 of the 49 times. I didn't literally delete it, or actually delete or really delete it. I just deleted without any extra adverbs. The book now seems cleaner. I then went after the word "seems," in order to make the book sound even less wordy. Sound is a much better verb than seem by the way.

A professional eventually edits my book, but I literally save money if they don't have to delete literally 49 times. The L word helps with the M word, money!

So sticks and stone may break your bones, but words like literally can literally hurt you.