Pet Words

When I write a manuscript for one of my mystery novels, I often, inadvertently, use a particular word over and over. My wife, my first reader, refers to this as a pet word. For some reason I get enamored with a particular word while writing, and it keeps popping up. While writing one novel, I kept using the word extract. Things were being extracted from a wallet, people were extracting themselves from a car . . . you get the picture. Rather than using a normal word, I got carried away. So, writers, review your manuscripts and extract any words that are artificial and have become pet words.