Writing Tip: Delete (almost) all occurrences of "almost"

Why make this change?

There are times to use “almost,” but most of time a new writer uses it, they don’t need it.

If something almost happened, then you need it:

The boat almost sank.

Something happened that caused the boat to come close to sinking, but it didn’t. Okay, “almost,” or “nearly,” or “came close to,” are good.

Consider the example, “The figure is almost life-like.”

What does that mean? “Life-like” means that it looked real, but was not. For example, a portrait or, in the case of our e...