Just eliminate the word “stuff” from your vocabulary. I noticed myself saying it a lot today. “And stuff.” “You know, ‘n all that kinda stuff.” Urg. My theater teacher managed to stamp “um” out of me, but this is the latest offender.
Seriously. Try it, and you’ll move up from a 6th grade vocabulary to at least a high school sophomore.
This goes for writing, too. Everyone has their own favorite “comfort phrases” that creep in, no matter which character is doing the talking or thinking. I’ve found several favorite phrases that are all me; they reflect my attitude and background, and they show up no matter what. For example, would a Mexican blue-collar worker with a 6th grade education think, “My ice cream is losing its structural integrity?” No! That’s a geeky in-joke my friends and I started in middle school.
After a few weeks of distance from your story, things like this will probably jump out. They’re well worth the effort to find, because they create irritating little notes of cognitive dissonance in readers. Readers won’t know exactly what’s wrong, but they will feel a sense of something’s wrong. They will distance themselves from your story, both because they don’t trust you as much, and because it’s a logical problem they want to figure out.
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