Your Writing Sins

[wordwalker]

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.

 

[Helen]

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

 

[Ryan_Crown]

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.

 

[Guy]

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

 

[Noma Galway]

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.

 

[Philip Overby]

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.

 

[Philip Overby]

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.

 

[rhd]

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

 

[Gurkhal]

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.

 

[The Blue Lotus]

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!

 

[Incanus]

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?

 

[WeilderOfTheMonkeyBlade]

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....

 

[Ermol]

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.

 

[Philip Overby]

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).

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

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

 

[Philip Overby]

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 Writer̢۪s Block Procrastination | Psychology Today

 

[Ryan_Crown]

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.

 

[SM-Dreamer]

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.

 

[Aspasia]

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

 

[Philip Overby]

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.