Writing Habits That You Can't Break

[weakwithwords]

I sometimes overthink before writing.
I sometimes overwrite after thinking.

Remember, folks! Do not think and write while driving.

 

[LilyTree]

I have books elsewhere and one of my very bad habits is rewriting all the time. I had one book that I reread when trying to get back on the production train and realized it was the mutant child of 3 different rewrites I had never finished.

 

[Rinne]

Too many. Makes me cringe during editing process.

Edit: I refer to this when writing any kind of dialogue because I don't trust myself: https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/quotes.asp

That link is a godsend. Non-dialogue quotations are the worst.
Also, that rule 9 explains why I occasionally see that. Personally feels very jarring and confusing to read an open quotation mark but good to know that this is actually grammatically correct.

Some of these rules are different in german, making it confusing as hell.

As for bad habits...
Whenever I use a word like "Fortunately" or a partial sentence like "To be honest" I tend to repeat them for the next three paragraphs. Even when they were completely unnecessary.

To be honest, it's really annoying.
But fortunately, I find most of them during the editing process.

Oh...

 

[Arexio]

That link is a godsend. Non-dialogue quotations are the worst.
Also, that rule 9 explains why I occasionally see that. Personally feels very jarring and confusing to read an open quotation mark but good to know that this is actually grammatically correct.

Some of these rules are different in german, making it confusing as hell.

As for bad habits...
Whenever I use a word like "Fortunately" or a partial sentence like "To be honest" I tend to repeat them for the next three paragraphs. Even when they were completely unnecessary.

To be honest, it's really annoying.
But fortunately, I find most of them during the editing process.

Oh...

Yeah it's one of my most frequented bookmarks.

Rule 9 is super jarring, agreed. I tend to overuse rule 3a because I find it addicting to have dialogue tags in the middle of quotations.

Lmao. I do the same thing but with other transition words.

 

[ddevans]

I think of some really clever and unique way to phrase something. Then 50,000 words later I forget that I used it, and use it again, discovering it only later on a casual reread. The double edged sword of that is while using a unique phrase (or word) once is clever, using it twice makes you look more inept than if you had gone conventional. It calls attention to the shortcomings of the writer; the reality of the limits of his imagination and vocabulary.

The other side of that is stock reactions. How many ways do people have of reacting to something? Very few, in my world.

I am forever unsure if my dialog is followable, so rather than adhere to the convention of dropping the speaking character after the first couple exchanges, I'll repeat who is speaking several times until it is well clear that it is a conversation between two people in an alternating rhythm. Since my current work is driven by a lot of banter and talking in rooms, like a play, it's a constant issue.

A lot of these problems I plan to deal with after the work is finished, when I do one big mega-revision using everything I've learned.

 

[AliceShiki]

Does looking for a synonym on google but ending up on discord for an hour count ?

I totally get how discord can take a lot of our time away when we wanna write! >.<

Gotta put a forceful break on it and close discord when writing! >.<

I am forever unsure if my dialog is followable, so rather than adhere to the convention of dropping the speaking character after the first couple exchanges, I'll repeat who is speaking several times until it is well clear that it is a conversation between two people in an alternating rhythm. Since my current work is driven by a lot of banter and talking in rooms, like a play, it's a constant issue.

I prefer to ignore the convention altogether and always say who is talking tbh... I'd rather make sure it is clear which person is talking, than to save a few explanatory words.

 

[WaterBear6]

Being garbage.

 

[JayDirex]

Getting sucked into a black hole of dialogue that goes nowhere.

Bruh...i go to edit my dialog, and I lose track of what they're talking about

 

[Grim_Ether]

Deciding I don't like everything I've written and deleting all of it.

 

[AliceShiki]

Deciding I don't like everything I've written and deleting all of it.

*hugs* Try to keep moving forward and publishing what you can! It's an important first step!

No story will ever be perfect! But it's better to have an imperfect one than to have none! >.<

 

[Goswick]

Does looking for a synonym on google but ending up on discord for an hour count ?

Hahaha, yes it does, because I do that way too much myself

 

[TowerGuy]

The passive voice keeps being used by me.

 

[AliceShiki]

The passive voice keeps being used by me.

I don't get what's the problem with passive voice tbh? I mean, it fits well into some passages.

 

[starsmidnight]

Stopping right when the two main protagonists meets. I tend to write romance novels a lotand looking back my numerous drafts and hiatus-filled stories on Wattpad... it always end right before they could introduce themselves to each other

It’s a really weird bad writing habit. And hopefully I’ll break my curse this time around

 

[GhostlyArtz]

The word just is a weakness of mine:
"the boy just shrugs it off"
"She just watches his hand,"
"The other girl just hovers there,"
That's actually one of my bigger weaknesses that I just don't understand.

 

[MajorKerina]

A little/bit/sorta/seemed like/it appeared like. I lack confidence so I need to keep these words out more.

 

[blazjindanblue]

Not writing...

 

[DubstheDuke]

Couple of things I do with dialogue

1. Very often, I will have a character go on a rant. And I mean like a rant. Probably about 100-200 words, and this isn't a rarity in my writing. It's usually for a purpose, or to demonstrate a long thought process, but I do this more than I should.

2. I often have just entire scenes consisting almost completely of only dialogue. Like, sometimes there will be an 800-1000 word scene of nothing more than dialogue. No descriptions, no narration. Just two people talking. I try to avoid this for the most part though, and actually describe the surroundings, actions, and reactions of the people when they're talking.

Furthermore, I suck at spelling. Yeah.

Oh, and also- I'm lazy.

Often I have to look back in my story to check whether something is one way or the other, and instead of searching for which chapter I wrote it in, I instead just say ok lets forget about it and just make it vague so that it's right either way.

 

[queenofthefuzzybugs]

My brain latches on to a word and keeps reusing it. It's be totally random, like, I dunno, the word "time". And then, somehow, someway, for the next three paragraphs, they'll be 6+ uses of the word "time". How many times I can I use the word "time"? Sometimes, all the time, there were times when, at the time, the time of day, the time before, and on it goes Like some kind of word-broken-record that just repeats until it's so obvious my conscious thought finally realizes what's going on.

I'll tell my brain to knock it off. Then my brain reluctantly does as asked. For, like, a sentence I am free. Then my brain finds another word to obsess over for another 3 paragraphs.



Also, also... I'm hella long winded. Plus side is I can pad a story real well. Minus side is my ability to keep a story tight and on point is almost non-existent. I enjoy writing short stories because I exhaust myself on the stories where I can't shut up for this specific reason.

 

[anactualchad]

The word just is a weakness of mine:
"the boy just shrugs it off"
"She just watches his hand,"
"The other girl just hovers there,"
That's actually one of my bigger weaknesses that I just don't understand.

I also have a pretty bad habit of using "just" to emphasize just about everything.