In addition to thought verbs, be on the lookout for thought adjectives: angry, happy, joyful, sad, depressed, dejected, curious, interested, fascinated, repulsed, disgusted, puzzled, confused, etc. And adverbs: angrily, joyfully, confusedly, with interest, with disgust, and so on.
Never cut out words completely. I agree with that. But I do a search for qualifiers or fillers to see if I really need them: "near," "half," "existing," "whole," etc. If something is half a step, for instance, can it not be a shuffle? Then again, there's no way. How else can I describe a half-full glass? And then there's the word "suddenly." I find it's an ironic word because it pads any suddenness you're trying to achieve. Then again, I use it when I want to get more into a character's head. It's best when you're trying to inject humour or characterization. Kind of hard to explain, but I'd run away from that word nine times out of ten.
