Just.

I just wanted a bit.

It just takes a moment.

If he would just hurry up.

It just means…

It would just be setting you up for failure.

My editor suggested that I delete the word ‘just’ as often as I could from my soon-to-be-published novel.  A quick search showed me how often I used the word, and how needlessly. Apparently it is a common writing error. I’m tempted to revisit my older titles to see if I’ve overused it in those stories too, but I won’t. It would ‘just’ depress me. (See? I’m still doing it.)

As I work on my novel-in-progress, I’m hyper aware of that niggling adverb.  I’m striking it from my writing vocabulary. Just wait and see if you can spot a single j word. (oops)

Photo credit:

http://nowastedink.com/2013/04/12/copy-editing-software-for-authors/