This mini-post has been churning around in my head recently after I read a short story online.  While the story seemed okay, the word "very" rang heavily throughout and by the end I was just annoyed.

As writers, I believe we should avoid the word very.

Don't get me wrong, it's part of the language and you can throw it around in your everyday speech and type it in emails and even in blogs (I'm sure I've dumped it in more than one of my posts) but when it comes to your writing, your actual stories, I say - leave it out.