I think learning our crutches is the best thing we can strive for. I worked as an editor for a small indie publisher, and one of the authors used the phrase “for his/her part” repeatedly. ie; Ralph, for his part, was… Sue, for her part… It got almost funny — I started looking for them.

By crutch, I mean the patterns we fall into repeatedly without noticing. For some people that’s a word or phrase. Other popular crutches are lapsing into third person, and passive voice. (Guilty as charged! lol) Most of us have many of them. I know I do!

The best thing we can do is get to know (and discover) our crutches so we can watch for them. Not when writing, because we should write uninhibited — but when editing, for sure! :)