- I use commas very liberally. I can't help it, I just like them, they are perfect for how my brain rambles and how my characters brains ramble. I may use them incorrectly but I read everything I write aloud so the natural pauses always seem appropriate. My addiction has got better but I do sometimes find myself giving in.
- I don't plan. I've read countless books and attended creative writing classes which always said the same thing. 'Before you start your novel, sit down and plan it out. Write your characters, their names, personality traits, and personal arcs. Write your beginning, middle, end, and subplots. Once you have ironed out every single possible diversion and wrung the life, spontaneity, and imagination from the thing, then you can write your first line.' While I can see the wisdom in this, I just can't work like that which leads to a few consistency errors I have to go back to correct. It's annoying and confuses me but I can't seem to work any other way.
- I sometimes skimp on dialogue. I tend to write very close, single character-focussed narrative, either in 1st or 3rd person, so I often forget about dialogue. The MC in my current WIP is bit OCD so tends to be a lot inside his own head and is, generally, a very isolated person so the dialogue is always something a little foreign to him. I know that the plot feels like it moves and the pace speeds up when there is a lot of dialogue (e.g the literary abomination that is Twilight) but I'd like to think the prose can carry the story without pages and pages of he-said-she-said (I also don't use 'said' in my writing. Hate it).
- Adverbs. This is more of a historical mistake, I'm not using them in my current projects but I used to. I had adverbs coming out of my ears, nose, mouth, and keyboard. They just seemed to write themselves, automatically... My instinct is still to write those dreaded ly-words but I catch myself and try to re-word the description and consign them to the Pit. If for some reason I can't find a suitable alternative, I will use a less obvious or well-known adverb, but always with a touch of disappointment and the promise to come back and change it.
So these are a few my bad writing habits, some I'm working on, some I'm content with. Do any of you share any of these habits? And if you're in a sharing mood, what are yours?
I'm with you on the commas, so many commas. But I think it's endemic of a mind addicted to asides - dialogue, exposition, doesn't matter, asides are my drug of choice. Reducing the number of commas I use has merely led to greater experimentation with colons and semicolons and em dashes, with little or no real understanding of how any of them should be applied. I gotta kick the asides.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I send an email, I go through what I've written and turn all the commas into full stops. It seems to work. I think I do it because I'm hearing what I'm writing and it comes out like speech.
ReplyDeleteMy main mistake is writing too succinctly. I know what's going on and it seems a bit tedious to have to write it all down and seems like padding.
That's a good way of removing excess commas Steve. I think with too many commas it's like a continuous stream of consciousness that, to the writer, seems a quicker way of saying something. For example you can say what you mean to in 1 sentence instead of 4 but it doesn't necessarily make for good writing.
ReplyDeleteI have learned the value of a well-placed full stop and short, succinct sentences. I think the occasional ramble is important to my character though.
I know what you mean about padding. It's like watching a film or reading a book you've already seen/read, you know what's going on and want to get to the big climactic ending but have to wade through all the set up and background first. I think it's worth remembering how it felt as a viewer/reader, to read it for the first time. All the padding was necessary then to make the crescendo that much more important and valid.