What bad writing habits are you trying to fix?

[Kumquatqueen]

I've got better at long run-on sentences with too many 'and's. Instead I now have but, though and however exploding out my thumbs, with a few aftershocks of just, only, really, seemed, feeling like...

 

[yowser]

Trying not to listen to the voice that keeps saying 'You call that writing?'

 

[MrPixel]

I've got better at long run-on sentences with too many 'and's. Instead I now have but, though and however exploding out my thumbs, with a few aftershocks of just, only, really, seemed, feeling like...

Sounds like my affliction. I have to watch especially for "just" and "really". And "and" where it really should be a '.' and a new sentence. I usually catch these in proofreading for flow.

Oh... nested quotes, too.

 

[SamScribble]

I have been publishing short stories for almost 60 years, and I'm still trying to avoid getting crumbs on my keyboard.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

So... I use the word "so" too much.

And honestly, I'm just trying to get back into writing regularly. I have a dozen unfinished stories, including two that were supposed to go in their respective contests in 2020.

 

[SimonDoom]

So... I use the word "so" too much.

And honestly, I'm just trying to get back into writing regularly. I have a dozen unfinished stories, including two that were supposed to go in their respective contests in 2020.

I just looked over your story list and didn't realize it's been 2 1/2 years since your last one! You were so productive from 2019-2020. Hope you get some of the mojo back.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I just looked over your story list and didn't realize it's been 2 1/2 years since your last one! You were so productive from 2019-2020. Hope you get some of the mojo back.

Thanks. I lost my mojo in quite a few areas of my life. But things seem like they're turning around...

 

[Rob_Royale]

The use of she/her and he/him vice using a proper noun. I'll find a paragraph with eight uses of she, and no uses of the woman's name. I also like choosing names with a short version, just so I can use that in place of either, for the sake of flow.

“Bingo. We have a winner.” Jessica thought. The first thing she did was mask up and slide the old mattress off the bed and into the main room. She pulled her trusty air quality monitor from her pack and it reported no concerns. Then Jess checked the door. Solid enough. Base camp established. She quickly surveyed the rest of the suite but found no obvious hazards.

 

[FifthEstate]

I need to do less editing while writing. My pace slows to tortoisesque while writing, reading, and editing each sentence. It’s an absolute killer to productivity.

 

[Gamblnluck]

I've caught a lot of continuity errors in my narratives and I'm honestly surprised no one has mentioned them in comments yet. It makes me wonder if I'm overthinking things and readers are more forgiving than I give them credit for.

No, people in different genres look for different things. Dropped thoughts or breadcrumbs are not noticed in some genres but not in others. Some are deliberate, but others are just sloppy writing. The difference is important. I've gone back and eliminated some just to avoid leaving a blank path..
I told somebody one of the things i most liked about JK Rowlings Harry Potter series was she was a novice writer. Yet some of the things she mentioned in her first books came back in subsequent ones. You would never see it with a first read. I personally thought it brilliant.

 

[ofbuttons]

Repetitive ways of saying stuff. 'He gave a groan' or 'he gave a sigh', for instance, is automatic for me and I have to go back and iron out those kinds of phrases so it isn't so frequent that it becomes noticeable.

 

[Britva415]

I've caught a lot of continuity errors in my narratives and I'm honestly surprised no one has mentioned them in comments yet. It makes me wonder if I'm overthinking things and readers are more forgiving than I give them credit for.

Or less attentive to detail

 

[Seadog777]

I'll be typing up a story and end up having an idea for another story.
I'll immediately start tying up the new story.
Rinse and repeat
Might be why I am HOPELESSLY stuck on Part 2 of "My Sneaky Wife Jennifer".

 

[TadOverdon]

Overuse of adverbs.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I'm currently experimenting with simplifying plots after one of my beta readers described my current novel as being like a Cookoo Clock designed by Rude Goldberg. On that basis I'm doing a set of stories with the basic premise of 'she wants to fuck him, so she does'.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

While 'that that' and 'had had' are grammatically correct, I need to stop using them all of the time.

 

[FifthEstate]

Overuse of adverbs.

Me too…

 

[billrokra]

Overwriting. Brevity is the soul of wit but I tend to make my writing over-detailed.

 

[K.A. Ryde]

Overuse of commas. My inability to quite understand that punctuation has its own rules and isn't to be twisted however I want it to be is gonna be the death of me, I swear.

 

[Vivid_Astronomer]

For me it's detail. The little things. Adding in those details that makes the story seem more believable - like it really happened. Almost everything I write is based, even if only in small part, on something I experienced. Whether it's something I experienced directly, or was told by a close friend. The challenge for me is being disciplined enough to stop and think about those intricate details and work them into the story. When I rush, I always miss those details. When I take my time, I find the details really add flavor.

 

[DarkSollat]

Writing unnecessary words. Like replace "she turned the handle, opening the door to enter the room" with "she entered the room".

 

[nice90sguy]

I've got an awful habit of dotting my i's with little hearts, and using a lot of different font colors, which adversely affects the gravitas of my dark, brooding, tortured stories.

 

[MetaBob]

Adult sex is either boring or dirty
Young people, they can get away with murder

-Moe Berg

Me try fix dat.

For everything else: https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?p=92166492 , especially:

6. Voice and extra words. Minimize passive voice, maximize active voice. Watch for unnecessary repetition. I agonize over every word in my writing, but that may be a personal choice not everyone needs to make; I like to be succinct. Minimize use of the word "that" and commas. Minimize dialog tags. Lately I've been more conscious that whenever "and then" appears, one of those two words is probably unnecessary. Whenever someone is "starting to" do something or is "about to start to", just do whatever that something is. Active voice! Elmore Leonard helps, but I think every one of his "rules" has exceptions.

 

[panaflora]

Overuse of adverbs.

This. Completely.

 

[yukonnights]

Number 1 is lack of discipline. I know I should just pick a time of day to write, and force myself every day to write during that time. I COULD do that. My hours are flexible enough, pretty much, to do that. If I did, I would be far more productive.

Number 2 is avoiding continuity/plausibility errors. I don't like how many of those I let slip through.

Number 3 is better proofreading. I do all my own editing and proofreading and it's embarrassing to see some of the mistakes that get through.

Number 3 — i should have learned by now that trying to proofread my own story is a mission doomed for failure. But, I did just that with my last story — yep, a couple of very embarrassing comments later and I was informed that I had switched one of the main character's name from Juan to Carlos. (Ogg, you're not alone in that embarrassment). The reader who made the comment must be working on sainthood — he gave it a 5 rating and just wanted to let me know about the error.

As soon as I was aware of the typo, I had my wife proof it and I also went through all of the story again and put it into the queue for Edit. Sadly, the delays in proofreading — and the longer delay of waiting for the edited version to go live — caused a loss of visibility for the final edited version on the new story list. The story is now stuck at a 4.38 rating and that's probably where it will stay.

Hopefully, I have finally learned my lesson!!!