Here’s a neat idea I picked up from Twitter (thanks @BrianneZwambag and @emsheehanwrites!):
Want to know what the most used words in your manuscript? Build a word cloud!
I used www.wordclouds.com to analyze the current version of my novel as well as my short story work in progress. The free program allows you to upload a word document and also ignore what it calls “stop words” like: the, at, and, etc.
For fun, you can also change the shape and coloring of the generated cloud, play with the font, and change word orientation.
Here are my two results!
From Apricots and Wolfsbane:
From my untitled short story work in progress:
K.M. Pohlkamp - Author Website 
This was a tremendous suggestion. It’s helped me see words I’m using frivolously and reshaped some of my sentences along the way. Thanks for the tip!
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You’re welcome! I’m so glad it helped with your writing! Your results were fascinating.
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