# Your Writing Sins



## Philip Overby (Sep 3, 2014)

Maybe we had a post like this before, but I haven't seen one recently. (The Mythic Scribes Blood Pact? Which is still a go for those that committed  )As writers we sometimes need to lay bare some of our issues as writers that may hold us back. Sometimes by putting a magnifying glass on the problems you have, it can make it so you pay more attention to eliminating them or ultimately just decide to embrace them. I've embraced some of these below, but I'll share with you ones that have caused/continue to cause me issues.

1. Mixing modern language with sword and sorcery style fantasy. 

I've often had comments about how the modern language of some of my characters jars people from the story because I guess there is this assumption that all fantasy worlds are medieval or can't use modern language in them unless they're urban fantasy. That's something I've struggled a lot with, but I actually find that it works for some of my stories and doesn't for others. This is a sin I'm not sure will be eliminated because I do like to combine modern conventions with fantasy stories. Call it anachronistic or whatever, I guess.

2. Cursing

My characters curse a lot. I don't so much mind it, but I know it may turn off a segment of readers. I tend to read books and watch movies with lots of cursing in it, so foul language doesn't make me bat an eyelash. I do tend to try to use cursing only when people are angry though or if it's a particular character that just curses a lot. Not sure what to do about this one.

3. Extreme Violence

I know lots of people are getting turned off my grimdark style fantasy fiction nowadays. Some say it's had it's day in the sun and people are looking for more optimistic fiction again. That may be true, but I also think as writers we can't worry much about trends coming and going. My fiction tends to be violent. Lots of monster battles, blood, etc. Most of the time I do it as my aesthetic of having over the top violence. Kind of like Mortal Kombat style. I don't take it completely serious most of the time. Sometimes it's satirical and sometimes it's darker and more serious. My original background in horror fiction keeps this ingrained in my style I suppose. I have written non-violent fiction before, so I don't think I HAVE to do it, it's just a sin I drag around like Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's. 

4. Was and Were

Not something I can completely eradicate, I know, but in my first drafts I see lots of was and were everywhere. I snipe them out when I can, but there are just some instances where I find it hard to do. I wonder how other people feel about this (I see it in published fiction all the time, so I guess it's not that big of a deal).

5. Bloated Cast of Characters

I love having lots of characters, but sometimes many of them are completely unnecessary. I've since taken a more proactive stance toward this, eliminating named characters unless they actually have some significance to the plot.  I also tend to think if a character showed up one time, that means they have to show up over and over again. Either that or I have to show them die. I don't know why I do that, but I have this apprehension readers may say "What happened to so and so?" Something I'm definitely working on.

6. Need to Write Everything

My feeling of wanting to jump around to different genres may limit me in a marketable way once I start publishing. Or maybe it'll help me. I don't know. NO ONE KNOWS!

OK, so those are some of my sins. Some are more bearable than others. Feel free to share some of your sins and how you feel about them (accept them, change them, or do away with them). If you want to comment on some of what I listed, go ahead, too.


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## Mythopoet (Sep 3, 2014)

Right now my biggest problems are that...

1. I never finish anything. This problem with this is pretty obvious. 

2. I don't write enough. All writing is practice, whether you're writing something with the intent to publish it or not. Because I don't manage to snatch enough writing time I don't get enough practice. 

At this point I have to accept these problems. Berating myself up for them only makes it worse, because I'm prone to anxiety. Number 2 is a natural consequence of being a mother of a large family with special needs. It's just the way it is and pushing myself too hard won't make my writing any better. Number 1 is just something I have to keep working to remedy.


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## Aidan of the tavern (Sep 3, 2014)

Hmm, interesting Phil.  Do you have an example of your 'modern' language?  I'm just curious because I probably do all kinds of anachronistic things.  I have perhaps the rather unhelpful attitude that, for example, although my world may resemble medieval Europe or whatever, someone got around to inventing the piano a little earlier.  I'm still working on the whole believability thing .


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## Philip Overby (Sep 3, 2014)

I'm of the opinion that if something works, it works. I try not to place my worlds in any specific time period, which may be frustrating to some. I believe a lot of writers like to derive their worlds from history and I admire that a lot. However, I just write what I think sounds cool, which can damage believability for readers that are used to a certain kind of style. Here's an example of some dialogue I may use (I'm just writing this right now, so this isn't from a WIP or anything):

_"Yeah, looks like everyone's dead." Yargoth scratched his beard and leaned against his claymore. 
"Really?" Angeline laughed the way sorceress's normally did, open mouthed and booming. "Looks like they're sleeping."
"They're sleeping in blood then."
"Maybe they're vampires." Angeline lifted up one of the body's arms and dropped it. "Really sleepy vampires."
"Vampires sleep in their food?" 
"You fall asleep on top of bones all the time."
Yargoth's eyebrows furrowed. "Ah, but that's different. Those are bones of my enemies, not of my food."
"Sometimes they're the same," Angeline said.
"Fair enough."_

A lot of the language here may be considered too modern for a fantasy setting with someone named Yargoth who wields a claymore or a sorceress named Angeline. People may see the terms "claymore" and "sorceress" and feel that this must be a medieval setting. However, I guess I see my fiction more like Glen Cook's Black Company series. I feel like the characters talk in a more modern style, but the world still has monsters, wizards, and the like in it.

I guess people may expect this kind of language in urban fantasy, but in anything that resembles epic fantasy it's a harder sell. 

Using "yeah," "fair enough" and contractions may make the writing sound too modern. I personally don't mind this style, but it has to be something a readership has to accept early on. Some readers may get immediately thrown out of a story if they view it as unbelievable. So my job is to hopefully show my writing as comedic in some way so that people don't take it so seriously when it comes to the language. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have to figure out how I want to go about doing this.


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## deilaitha (Sep 3, 2014)

One of mine is what I call  Favorite Word Syndrome. Some people get songs stuck in their heads; I get words stuck in my head.  I have one word that rattles around in my skull for a while, and when I go back to revise my work, I realize that it is abso-frickin-lutely EVERYWHERE.  

I have many more, but that one is really noticeable.


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## Chessie (Sep 3, 2014)

My worst writing sins: Skyrim and the internet. Need I say more? :/ Its not like I can't get away from it either. Just need to work on my willpower.


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## Butterfly (Sep 3, 2014)

I seem to have a 'gaze' addiction. Everyone gazes at something or turns his gaze from that to this, or fixed his gaze on something... I'm trying hard to break it... really hard, or at least to find a variation in how the characters are looking at things.


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## T.Allen.Smith (Sep 3, 2014)

I recently had it pointed out to me, in a novella length work, I used too many infinite verb phrases (A sentence with an act but without an actor). I never noticed it before & it's something crit partners never mentioned. Typically, as in my case, it's done to avoid the common Name/Pronoun heavy sentence structure. 

It could be specific to that story, but I doubt it. Sometime soon, I'm going to comb through the completed works of the past year and find out for sure. 

Either way, I love it when someone can illustrate a weakness in my writing. That's especially true if it's one I'm not aware of. I can use that knowledge to improve.

So... Maybe it's a sin. I'll know for sure when I look back through other stories. At least now I'm aware.


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## Ruby (Sep 3, 2014)

Hi, my worst writing sins are:

1 Procrastination - why am I on here instead of writing my WIPs?

2 Not finishing anything - see 1 above.

3 Starting several WIPs including a graphic novel and a cartoon series and flitting from one to another instead of concentrating on one and finishing it - see 2 above.

4 Writing a fantasy novel with over 70 characters, including two rabbits; then writing the prequel and adding an extra 50 characters as they're the ancestors of some of the characters in the first WIP, as I introduced time travel into the story.

5 Writing 12 chapters before I discovered that there wasn't a plot.

6 Finding the plot ( see 5 above) and then suddenly have it expand to include every plot of every book I've ever read plus virtually every genre.

7 Deciding that my unfinished WIP, plus the prequel, will now be part of a trilogy.

8 Getting writers block from trying to make sense of the impossible paradoxes in my time travel novel.

9 Sending chapters by email to friends and relatives; clogging up their in-boxes with multiple edited and re edited versions of the same chapter; telling them to "Ignore the earlier versions and read THIS one!"

10 Starting to write my unfinished time travel fantasy trilogy as a musical.

11 Turning everything into comedy.


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## Gryphos (Sep 3, 2014)

Butterfly said:


> I seem to have a 'gaze' addiction. Everyone gazes at something or turns his gaze from that to this, or fixed his gaze on something... I'm trying hard to break it... really hard, or at least to find a variation in how the characters are looking at things.



I have a similar problem in that I can't stop referring to people's eyes. It's always "soandso's eyes shifted from here to there" or "he returned his eyes to me" or "he prised his eyes away from it".


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## skip.knox (Sep 3, 2014)

I don't think I can properly report on my sins until I have multiple works that have been reviewed by beta readers (at least). To date, I have only three.

I don't call not finishing stories a sin. That's merely a failure. Repeated failures still don't add up to sin. At most it's a sin of omission rather than a sin of commission. In that category, though, my biggest problem is an inability to finish editing. I'm not talking about being obsessive about small matters, I'm talking about having major pacing or plot issues that I seem unable to resolve. When I try, I get bogged down with too many possibilities, get discouraged, write a bit here and there, but never manage to resolve the central problem. For example, a section that is too slow. A big section. Several chapters. I try everything from outlining to beats to cutting the whole thing out and starting afresh, but no matter which way I turn or what I slash, new brambles appear. Initial writing? Easy. Getting through the Great Swampy Middle? That's playing on Nightmare Mode.


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## thedarknessrising (Sep 3, 2014)

One of my biggest sins is my distractive nature. For example, I was just working on my WIP when I decided to pop over here to see what's going on with everyone. When this usually happens, I can get right back to work, though sometimes I end up getting on Facebook or tumblr and then I forget that I was writing in the first place, and I'll read whatever book currently holds my fancy. I don't get back to writing for an hour or so after that. And by that time, whatever train of thought I had is derailed and I have to work hard to get it running again. The cycle repeats ad infinitum.


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## Ryan_Crown (Sep 3, 2014)

I know the feeling of having those certain words you just can't get away from, that crop up over and over in my writing. Luckily, I've gotten to where I know what most of them are, which makes it easier to clean them up in the editing process.

I also struggle to finish. I think part of my sin there is I've always thought of myself as a seat-of-the-pants writer, but in way too many cases I'd either have my story wander all over the place with no cohesive plot (until I just gave up because I had no idea where the story was going or how to properly conclude it), or I'd hit a creative block and give up once I got tired of trying to figure out what should happen next. So now I'm trying to switch gears and see if outlining my plot and spending a fair bit of time structuring my story _before _I sit down and start the actual writing may help me to be more successful in finishing a novel.


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## Feo Takahari (Sep 3, 2014)

I have a history of not explaining things enough. 

To give an example, there's a bit in the book I published where one character is urging another to kill a third who's allegedly possessed by the villain. The FMC is completely baffled, and I interrupt the scene a few times with her thinking that this doesn't make any sense. Then she puts things together and shoots the person doing the urging.

I meant for the scene to be a bit sudden, since the FMC herself is baffled at first, but when my father read the book, he mentioned it as one scene where he had no idea what was going on. If I ever write a new edition, I'll explain the FMC's chain of logic, and specify exactly what she realizes in the end.


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## Trick (Sep 3, 2014)

Feo Takahari said:


> I have a history of not explaining things enough.



I'm with you on this one. I try to be subtle and end up cryptic. I've asked readers what they thought of a certain aspect of the story and they're like, "Oh... I didn't pick up on that." So then I have to balance between writing down to my readers and holding back too much explanation... It's frustrating.

My other sins... hmmm

1. Re-reading while editing instead of writing.
2. Analyzing sentences as I write them, slowing my progress and making my writing somewhat sterile.
3. Constantly coming up with new magic/gadgets and writing them into a scene where they just take up space.
4. Sitting and staring at the page while my mind wanders to things that are not writing

There are many more, these are all I can think of right now...


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## Philip Overby (Sep 3, 2014)

It seems like struggling to finish something is cropping up a lot. I had that problem a lot in the past, but I think I've conquered it...I hope.

What are the reasons you find you're not finishing anything? Is it the urge to create something fresher? Is it just not having time to dedicate to it? Is it "This Will Never Be Good Enough" syndrome? I'm curious as I've experienced all of these problems myself. 

As far as characters looking at each other a lot, perhaps an easy fix would be to think of another action they could do. I do what's called "snipe highlighting" in my stories. This means I try to find repetitive actions or words and highlight them as I'm doing my first surface edit. I don't do anything with them at first, I only highlight them. Then it's easier for me to decide if I want to keep them or not.


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## Waz (Sep 3, 2014)

Philip Overby said:


> ...it's just a sin I drag around like Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's.


This just got added to my list of favorites similes

I've cut down some sins quite a bit, such as passive voice and unnecessarily specifying the eye direction of a protagonist (he looked, she gazed, etc.). I still make mistakes, but I'm getting better at spotting them.

One sin is due to my current writing genre. My WIP is meant to sound old without being overbearing. Its language is heavily influenced by Beowulf, and sometimes the prose works, and sometimes it doesn't. When I meet with my crit group, I tend to bring sections that feel a bit off, and there's usually a few instances of verbose language.

I do worry that my WIP Book 1 will be criticized for not having a focused plot, at least not until the end. One the one hand, I'm intentionally avoiding a straightforward plot, choosing instead a series-of-adventures flow. The events come together 2/3 in, and the challenges and sub-plots coalesce into something bigger. On the other hand, perhaps it is a sin after all. In my second major rewrite, I'm highlighting the smaller challenges more, giving the reader more to chew on until the threat comes together.


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## Waz (Sep 3, 2014)

Oh, I thought of two more. Not reading enough, and not getting enough sleep. These are the victims of ridiculous (salaried) overtime, long commute, family time, volunteering, and then writing in my precious spare time.


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## Aidan of the tavern (Sep 4, 2014)

Butterfly said:


> I seem to have a 'gaze' addiction. Everyone gazes at something or turns his gaze from that to this, or fixed his gaze on something... I'm trying hard to break it... really hard, or at least to find a variation in how the characters are looking at things.



Ha, I can relate to this, though in my case I have loads of characters who always 'frown' and 'mutter'.


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## Asinya (Sep 4, 2014)

Sins...

Well, a few.

1.) I turn everything into lightweight wannabe comedy. 

2.) I don't explain enough - I might know what reasoning led up to a certain action, or I might know what someone looks like, or so on - but I fail at describing it, because it's already in MY mind, so for some reason, I forget it's not in the readers mind as well. 

3.) Not so much a sin as a failure, but - I can't do story twists to save my life


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## wordwalker (Sep 4, 2014)

Something this thread has repeated a lot is... well, repeating words.

I recently came across this link: Insecure Writer's Support Group: Nine Great Tools and Programs to Help You Edit

It's a list of apps and tools that can analyze your writing for certain things. Not the same as a good beta reader or editor, but they have their moments for spotting repeating words and a couple of other known quirks like passive voice. I've tried a couple (well, the free ones), and I may try them again.


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## Helen (Sep 4, 2014)

Creating plot movements that don't push the theme forward.


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## Ryan_Crown (Sep 4, 2014)

Anyone else find themselves jumping back and forth between past and present tense? I find myself doing that a surprising amount. Then I have to decide which tense works best and go fix everything that's in the other tense.


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## Guy (Sep 4, 2014)

Procrastination. I have no idea why. I like writing, I want to write, yet I procrastinate.


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## Noma Galway (Sep 4, 2014)

Procrastination is a huge one for me...but the biggest one is that I cannot force myself to write when I have nothing I want to put on paper. Which means I don't get a lot of writing done anymore, except for bad poetry. Hopefully this will pass, though. Really soon.


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## Philip Overby (Sep 4, 2014)

Procrastination is a normal thing. I often sit around on my days off at like 10 am and think, "I should be writing now." But I don't. However, I do eventually write at least once or twice every day now. If I don't do so, I can't go to sleep. Literally. When something becomes ingrained in your daily rituals enough, it can mentally affect you if you don't do it. I only normally write 30 minutes to an hour a day. That's really not that long when you think about it. But it keeps me moving forward on my novels. I inch along yes, but progress is progress. 

On the repetitive words situation, here are some I do a lot. I'm not an "edit as I go until it's perfect" kind of person, so I use many as place holders:

1. nodded
2. smiled
3. frowned
4. laughed
5. shook his/her head
6. looked

Those are just some off the top of my head. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with these words (some may disagree) but when you see them over and over, it may break immersion in some way. If people are always smiling at each other, it's kind of creepy if you think about it.


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## Philip Overby (Sep 4, 2014)

Ryan_Crown said:


> Anyone else find themselves jumping back and forth between past and present tense? I find myself doing that a surprising amount. Then I have to decide which tense works best and go fix everything that's in the other tense.



I almost always write in past tense. If I see any other tenses crop up, I try to destroy them before they infect my whole manuscript.


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## rhd (Sep 5, 2014)

Just thought I'd post this here instead of starting a new thread, fun criticism of some very typical plotlines and character design:

https://twitter.com/WorstMuse


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## Gurkhal (Sep 5, 2014)

My great sin is my laziness. I could be a much better author if I put in the effort needed to write everyday and seek to improve myself.


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## The Blue Lotus (Sep 5, 2014)

My "Sins" are many. 
Starting with, but not limited to: 

1- Jumping around various wips I only have 8 going atm. 

2- Hitting dry spells where I could not come up with an original thought to save my soul.

3- My total lack of punctuation, I know this, I'm working on it, it will probably always suck. But hey, editors need work too right?

4- Inability to think from point to point when writing. I tend to write what comes to me and sort it all out at a later time. 
This leaves me, my family, my printer and the dog very unhappy sometimes because, I print out everything, sort it into piles on the floor and move them around until I'm somewhat happy with it. I did just get Scrivner so hopefully, the printer can take a nap and my dog will finally be allowed to play with me when I'm on the floor.

5- I spend way too much time lost in goggle land. I do a ridicules amount of research for everything. One of the reasons I stopped doing challenges was because A I'm not nearly as good a writer as most people here and B I end up staying awake until dawn researching everything from building techniques to when matches came into existence to flora and fauna of the location at that time.   
Don't get me wrong I love learning random stuff, and some of it is even useful. However, usually it is just a time suck that I could have bluffed my way through with a decent amount of realism. 

6- Spelling- The dictionary is my best friend! If my life depended on my winning a spelling bee, someone would have to plan my funeral for me.


I have other "Sins" but these are the ones that bother me (and others) the most.  
Sorry writing partners, I'm trying to improve. I really am!


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## Incanus (Sep 5, 2014)

I think my biggest sin is editing and tinkering with whatever is on the page in front of me, instead of plowing forward.  For a while, I tried to train myself not to do this by writing in a notebook, single-spaced so there was only enough room to make a few emendations.  I wrote out about 21,000 words of the main part of my world's history this way, then found that almost all of it was terrible.  I typed it into a word processor all over again, keeping the general material, but none of the wording--it ended up at 31,000 words.

I've since given up on trying to write 'rough'.  I just can't do it.  I suppose the good side of it is that editing ends up generally fun and easy--just add in a few more details, seek out inconsistencies, improve some wording here and there.

But actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder:  is it a sin, or just a little unusual?


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## WeilderOfTheMonkeyBlade (Sep 6, 2014)

1. Swearing. Lots of swearing    

2. Lots of violence, battles. Well, I do write military fantasy. What else am I meant to do???  

3. (Maybe) To much description of arms and armour.   

4. Going way too BIGGG  

5. Not liking or doing editing  

6. Possibly being an absolutely terrible writer....


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## Ermol (Sep 7, 2014)

In addition to the usual procrastination issues and echoing, the biggie is to start a paragraph on the character thinking about his dead father and end up spending hours thinking about and writing out the backstory, setting, all in horrendous and extreme exposition style, usually on page 1 of the book where this stuff really doesn't belong.


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## Philip Overby (Sep 7, 2014)

Ermol said:


> In addition to the usual procrastination issues and echoing, the biggie is to start a paragraph on the character thinking about his dead father and end up spending hours thinking about and writing out the backstory, setting, all in horrendous and extreme exposition style, usually on page 1 of the book where this stuff really doesn't belong.



If you want to try to avoid that, I'd suggest starting with dialogue. It doesn't have to be your final beginning (you can add something in front of it), but it helps me a lot in avoiding heavy exposition at the beginning. Some writers like a slow start, but if you find a slow start keeps tripping you up, maybe try one with a fast paced beginning. Experiment with different styles and you may see some click better than others for you. (this coming from someone who always had heavy exposition at the beginning, history spiels and the like).


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## T.Allen.Smith (Sep 7, 2014)

Ermol said:


> In addition to the usual procrastination issues and echoing, the biggie is to start a paragraph on the character thinking about his dead father and end up spending hours thinking about and writing out the backstory, setting, all in horrendous and extreme exposition style, usually on page 1 of the book where this stuff really doesn't belong.



The important things to understand about backstory:
1) Everyone has one
2) Most of it isn't very interesting
-Stephen King


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## Philip Overby (Sep 7, 2014)

I just found a link that discusses ways to help procrastination since I saw many people mentioned that as well. Deciding what time to start writing has helped me a ton personally. Worth a look.

Ten Top Tips to End WriterÃ¢€™s Block Procrastination | Psychology Today


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## Ryan_Crown (Sep 9, 2014)

Ermol said:


> In addition to the usual procrastination issues and echoing, the biggie is to start a paragraph on the character thinking about his dead father and end up spending hours thinking about and writing out the backstory, setting, all in horrendous and extreme exposition style, usually on page 1 of the book where this stuff really doesn't belong.



I've gotten to the point where I'll sit down and write out all that boring exposition explaining my main character's life story, then when I'm done I'll save it as a separate file specifically called "back story". Then, having gotten that out of my system, I can sit down with a fresh, blank page and start my actual story in a spot that (hopefully) works as a good starting point for the story I want to tell.


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## SM-Dreamer (Sep 10, 2014)

My biggest sins...

Too many projects - my main series that I've extensively done worldbuilding on, another series I started a couple years ago consolidating several alt-earth stories I'd started, several short story pieces, and more stories that I started and set aside than I can shake a stick at.

Never having the time to write: work, school, family, and in between I'm always so damn tired and easily distracted by games and the 'net because they don't require me to really expend energy - or at least that's how it feels. I haven't even read for pleasure in months, I just always have textbooks or research to do.

Using too many "he looked, she glanced, etc" phrases, but I often use eyes to indicate thought or direction. Eyes skitting about rather than looking someone directly in the eye, things like that, I guess. I've also noticed that lately I favor the word "gleam."

Passive voice too often, but I'm working on that.

Too much description. Probably because as a reader, I actually like lots of description, and I end up writing a lot of it. Trying to work on either better integration, or eliminating what isn't needed.

Not wanting to explain things to the point where it feels like, too me, that I'm being redundant or that I'm explaining too much, and I end up being too subtle instead.


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## Aspasia (Sep 10, 2014)

Not actually writing ... I find a lot of excuses to avoid it. Since I do enjoy writing, I don't know why this is so!

Not sticking to anything long enough to finish. A new shiny idea always seems to come along 2-3k into a project, then it's only a small step to being completely abandoned.

Starting the story with a terrible info-dump. I've never found a way around this other than not actually planning at all! If I plan, I feel like the reader MUST know exactly what the character looks like and what the setting is like, when really that makes for a very boring beginning. Without planning, even _I _don't know, so it usually starts off more dynamically. But not-planning only works for very short pieces!  

My grammar sucks. It's been two years since an English class for me, and you can tell. I'm over-fond of dashes and ellipses, and never quite know when to end a sentence. Run-ons frequent all my writing. I can always tack _something _on the end of that sentence! Whether or not it needs it ...

Getting too excited about the plot and forgetting about character development. How many times have I ended up with a cobbled-together "Party" because gosh, I REALLY want to write that twist and that ending and I just have to write right now! Then discover that most of writing is living in your character's heads, and if those characters are flat, boring, and too "stock", it gets dull fast. This happens when I overplan the plot and underplan the characters, which happens rather frequently. Been trying to change that recently.

 Giving up when the momentum slows down. I can write 2k in a rush, but never touch a story again because it's in a calm or otherwise less interesting part. Writing ordinary scenes, with my characters just content and enjoying each other's company, is incredibly boring for me. Why, I don't know. Which is why my stories are often tragic, not many happy boring parts if everyone's life sucks! And those that are all the more poignant for the sadness around them -- or so I hope.

I should add ... my worst one. Starting WAY too many things! Seriously, I just made a list of "must concentrate on" stories. A tiny fraction of the ideas/started fragments I have floating around my harddrive. How many stories on the list? Seventeen! And these are the "priority" stories! Given, they're nearly all short stories and a good half will fall into the flash fiction length, but still! I seriously admire people who can keep it to 2-3 projects going at a time. Apparently I get bored REALLY easily :O


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## Philip Overby (Sep 12, 2014)

I used to work on too many projects but now I force myself to a strict 2 project minimum: one major WIP and one extra project to do when I feel like. The major project gets daily attention and the other gets attention when I get ideas. I think this method is going well so far.


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## J. S. Elliot (Sep 12, 2014)

Well, let's see.

1. Too many projects, AKA, the _"Oh, Shiny!" Disease_. I've gotten better about this in recent years, being that I now only have four priority projects, but I also have an ever growing mountain of back-burner ideas sitting in the cache. Nevertheless, the way my muse hops around can sometimes make it difficult to focus on even one of the four for long periods of time.

2. Can writing slow count towards this? I'm still not sure how to increase the productivity when I am writing other than starting good writing habits (which is difficult when you have several tests a week to study for), but, would like to increase output in my sessions.

3. Getting hung up on world building. I _love_ world building, which makes it easy to put off the story itself until I have a considerable starting point. (On the flip side, this saves me time in stopping mid-paragraph to find new names.) 

4. Being overly critical of the first draft, which I know also stunts my productivity. Perfectionism is hard to shake. :/


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## Ryan_Crown (Sep 12, 2014)

SeleneHime said:


> 3. Getting hung up on world building. I _love_ world building, which makes it easy to put off the story itself until I have a considerable starting point. (On the flip side, this saves me time in stopping mid-paragraph to find new names.)



Starting to run into this one myself. Came to the conclusion that at least some world-building was necessary for my current WIP, but once I got started, the more time that I spend world-building, the more fun I'm having doing it! In the long run I think this will be a positive thing for my stories (since I want to write a full series in this world), but in the short term it does almost feel like procrastination.


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## Gryphos (Sep 17, 2014)

I've realised something that might not technically be a sin, but it's been brought up to me. I use a lot of filler words. It can never be as simple as "It was cold". It has to be "However, it did indeed appear to be cold" or something like that.


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## Ryan_Crown (Sep 17, 2014)

Gryphos said:


> I've realised something that might not technically be a sin, but it's been brought up to me. I use a lot of filler words. It can never be as simple as "It was cold". It has to be "However, it did indeed appear to be cold" or something like that.



I run into that problem with wanting to add "certainly" or "absolutely" or "definitely" (or some other equivalent) into all of my sentences.


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## Gurkhal (Sep 17, 2014)

Gryphos said:


> I've realised something that might not technically be a sin, but it's been brought up to me. I use a lot of filler words. It can never be as simple as "It was cold". It has to be "However, it did indeed appear to be cold" or something like that.



I know that feeling.  You've got to make your heart cold as gold to kill your darlings and get it right.


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