From Writerisms and other Sins: A Writer’s Shortcut to Stronger Writing:

1. am, is, are, was, were, being, be, been … combined with “by” or with “by … someone” implied but not stated. Such structures are passives. In general, limit passive verb use to one or two per book. The word “by” followed by a person is an easy flag for passives.
2. am, is, are, was, were, being, be, been … combined with an adjective. “He was sad as he walked about the apartment.” “He moped about the apartment.” A single colorful verb is stronger than any was + adjective; but don’t slide to the polar opposite and overuse colorful verbs. There are writers that vastly overuse the “be” verb; if you are one, fix it. If you aren’t one—don’t, because overfixing it will commit the next error.

   and also:

3. -ness A substitute for thinking of the right word. “Darkness,” “unhappiness,” and such come of tacking -ness (or occasionally – ion) onto words. There’s often a better answer. Use it as needed.As a general rule, use a major or stand-out vocabulary word only once a paragraph, maybe twice a page, and if truly outre, only once per book.

A must read for anyone doing creative writing: broca’s ten mistakes of writing. Excerpt from my favorite, the ‘to be’ words:

6. THE ‘TO BE’ WORDS:
Once your eye is attuned to the frequent use of the “to be” words – “am,” “is,” “are,” “was,” “were,” “be,” “being,” “been” and others – you’ll be appalled at how quickly they flatten prose and slow your pace to a crawl.

The “to be” words represent the existence of things – “I am here. You are there.” Think of Hamlet’s query, “to be, or not to be.” To exist is not to act, so the “to be” words pretty much just there sit on the page. “I am the maid.” “It was cold.” “You were away.”

I blame mystery writers for turning the “to be” words into a trend: Look how much burden is placed on the word “was” in this sentence: “Around the corner, behind the stove, under the linoleum, was the gun.” All the suspense of finding the gun dissipates. The “to be” word is not fair to the gun, which gets lost in a sea of prepositions.

Sometimes, “to be” words do earn a place in writing: “In a frenzy by now, he pushed the stove away from the wall and ripped up he linoleum. Cold metal glinted from under the floorboards. He peered closer. Sure enough, it was the gun.” Okay, I’m lousy at this, but you get the point: Don’t squander the “to be” words – save them for special moments.

Not so long ago “it was” *defined* emphasis. Even now, if you want to say, “It was Margaret who found the gun,” meaning nobody else but Margaret, fine. But watch out – “it was” can be habitual: “It was Jack who joined the Million Man March. It was Bob who said he would go, too. But it was Bill who went with them.” Flat, flat, flat.

Try also to reserve the use of “there was” or “there is” for special occasions. If used to often, this crutch also bogs down sentence after sentence. “He couldn’t believe there was furniture in the room. There was an open dresser drawer. There was a sock on the bed. There was a stack of laundry in the corner. There was a handkerchief on the floor….” By this time, we’re dozing off, and you haven’t even gotten to the kitchen.

Every writer has different techniques to help themselves make time for writing and to keep writing. One technique that many writers seem to use is to write first thing in the morning. They may get up early, or simply make a point that the first productive thing they do is to write.

In my experience, the real benefit I get from this is that it gets my writing back into my active consciousness. I may only write for thirty minutes in that first block before I have to go take care of kids or get to work, but by then I’m excited about my writing, and thinking about what I’m going to write next.

When that happens, I’m really motivated to find some more time to write: maybe during a lull in my day, or over the lunch hour, or even in the evening after my kids are asleep. I’d almost never write during those later parts of the day if I haven’t planted the seeds of what I want to write early in the morning.

So if you are looking for a new technique to help fit in writing, try writing for thirty minutes first thing in the morning. Even if you spend fifteen minutes reacquainting yourself with your plot and characters and only fifteen minutes writing at that first block of writing time, I think you’ll find yourself coming back to your writing again and again during the day.