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Meg Waite Clayton

Author of the international bestsellers The Postmistress of Paris, The Last Train to London, and 6 other novels

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October 11, 2012 By Meg Waite Clayton

The Wordle.net Edit

Have you discovered Wordle.net yet?
It’s a site that will make a word cloud of your entire manuscript. I copied a late-process draft of The Wednesday Daughters and pasted it into the handy-dandy box on the site–so if it has a word limit, it is something less than 80,000+ words. You can see the result to the left.
So why am I so jazzed about this?
In an instant, I could see which words occur most frequently. Some–character names, for example–were not surprising. Others (even, just, like) sent me off to do a global search in Word, so that I could consider where I needed them and where I didn’t.
The end result: a manuscript that is 15 “likes” shorter. It has 26 fewer “evens,” 41 fewer “backs,” and … wait for it … 183 fewer “justs.” Seriously. 183!
No doubt I should be embarrassed that I had a draft with all those “justs” I didn’t need. But better to find out now rather than when it is in print! – Meg

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Filed Under: Writing Quotes and Other Literary Fun, Writing Tips

Meg Waite Clayton


Meg Waite Clayton is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of eight novels, including the Good Morning America Buzz pick and New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice THE POSTMISTRESS OF PARIS, the National Jewish Book Award finalist THE LAST TRAIN TO LONDON, the Langum-Prize honored THE RACE FOR PARIS, and THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS, one of Entertainment Weekly’s 25 Essential Best Friend Novels of all time. Her novels have been published in 23 languages. She has also written more than 100 pieces for major newspapers, magazines, and public radio, mentors in the OpEd Project, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the California bar. megwaiteclayton.com

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