All of these words are to be avoided as a rule because they tend to be devices to skirt interaction and development of characters, environment, and plot. For the writer such words also create a vacuum to fill in terms of fleshing out even simple notions, especially in dialogue and thought processes.
Though certain instances are legit, the hit counts alone can negate overall justifiability.
Searching "whole words only" in all KJA Dune books
except Winds:
really - 198 hits
you - 10773 hits
feel / felt - 409 / 1269 hits
think / thought - 829 / 1056 hits
as - 11377 hits
a lot - 58 hits
sort of / kind of - 150 / 95 hits
like - 3665 hits
just - 1950 hits
used to - 99 hits
Some entries have comparitively low hits, but
you do
just sort of feel as like it
really is
a lot.
*** and now the math ***
That's a grand total of 31928 potentially wasted words/phrases in 9 novels. I'll round up to 32000 and divide by 2 to comfortably grant concessions well beyond the legitimate margin. That is still SIXTEEN THOUSAND.
If the average word count per page in a novel is 250 (10 words per line * 25 lines):
31928 / 250 = 128 pages (raw)
16000 / 250 = 64 pages (generous concessions granted)
Spread across 9 books (and ignoring total page count), thats 14 pages (raw) and 7 pages (concessions) per book, respectively.
Now, I'd like to add just ONE more word to the list ---- "very." We have seen that the word has been replaced with "extreme" or "ultimate" or "just die
" at this point... and curiosity beckons me to make a final comparison.
very - 748 hits
extreme - 91 hits
ultimate - 68 hits
just die - 3 hits (HA, HH, BoC)
Add a couple more pages to the charmin roll.
)