Steering the Craft Chapter Five (Reading Response)

This is a very helpful chapter.  I think "suddenly" is a word that I have overused in the past, kind of unconsciously.  When I used to write, that word just seemed like one that belongs in stories, like "suddenly, the phone rings."  It sounds right.  But now I know that it's super cliche and I can avoid using it all together.  Oh, Ursula Le Guin also talks about avoiding "just," which I used quite a bit.  It just...I mean, it's so useful for when something is just simply...I just really like that word.  I guess "simply" can be used in place of it, or just omit the word all together.  I think it's kind of like a word-filler, like "or whatever" is constantly said nowadays in the middle of sentences (it's super annoying, but I say it, too).  "Kind of" is another phrase I use a lot.  Cutting down on these words will certainly take practice, because sometimes people tend to write in the same way that they speak, and I think that is part of the problem for me.  I say these words so often, that I automatically think of them when writing.  "Great" and "very" can be added to the list of words I splurge over.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about turning adverbs into verbs.  I like adverbs; they add mental pictures to stories.  "They ran quickly" is different from "they raced."  Actually, the former is weird because can you really run slowly?  I would just use "they raced," but i'm sure there are better examples to prove my point.  Overall, short, sweet, to the point, and helpful chapter.