Cutting Filler Words

Read this out loud: “She was very tired.” Now read this: “She was exhausted.” Both sentences are correct. Both are clear. But only one of them sounds like it came from someone paying attention to word choice — and the difference isn’t grammar, it’s one wasted word.

“Very” isn’t wrong here. It’s just doing almost no work that “exhausted” doesn’t already do by itself, more precisely, in one word instead of two. The same thing happens with really, just, actually, kind of, sort of, basically, began to, and started to — a whole family of words that sneak into a first draft because that’s how we actually talk, filling space while we think of what we mean, and then just sit there once the sentence is already finished.

Why cutting them tightens a sentence

Take “He just wanted to leave.” Cut “just” and you get “He wanted to leave” — same meaning, sharper delivery, because the reader no longer reads past a word that was only ever softening the sentence rather than adding to it. Or take “She began to walk toward the door.” Unless something actually interrupts that walk, “began to” is announcing an action that never needed announcing; “She walked toward the door” already says it.

None of this means eliminating every one of these words on sight. Once in a while “just” or “really” is doing real rhythmic work, softening a line on purpose, and a sentence can lose something by losing it. The habit worth building isn’t zero filler words — it’s a dedicated pass where you search for these words one at a time and honestly ask whether the sentence is stronger with each one gone. Most of the time, it will be.