Some authors have a propensity for repeating certain words throughout their work. At times this is done intentionally to enhance a visual impact, but often it is merely a bad habit.
A manuscript I recently read had an overuse of the word flew. "She flew to the door...", "The papers flew across the room...", "Ideas flew through his mind...". It was quite distracting.
In nonfiction a tendency is to overuse so as a transition word, or to give declaratives such as It is obvious. It's not so much that these writing tendencies are wrong, but they make a piece seem unprofessional.
Do a global search for sentences beginning with So. Other words and phrases to cull are there was, and then, and Soon. These weaken a piece, fiction or nonfiction, and would be better served with more descriptive and creative words.
I have a few pet words that I use too often -- like "just" and "finally" so I've learned to be aware of them while I write, but also to do a search and destroy when I'm finished with a project. Sometimes you can leave them for emphasis, but most of the time they are not necessary.
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