What bad writing habits are you trying to fix?

[sophism]

The story series I'm currently working on is in first person, and the more time I've spent writing this story the more I've realized that I lean a lot on "I feel" or "I realize" or "I think" statements. I find that I have to be pretty conscious about using direct verbs, and when I'm leaning on those for exposition of what characters are thinking or feeling it all feels a bit repetitive.

I'm not looking for advice, just curious as to what you're trying to keep in mind in your own writing right now? Especially curious for those who have been writing for a long time or write in large quantities.

 

[oggbashan]

I keep mixing up characters' names. In a story I'm currently writing although only 1000 words so far, I have had to make eight changes.

 

[SimonDoom]

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.

 

[Emotional]

Not using contractions enough

She is

They are

 

[sophism]

Not using contractions enough

As in you want to make sure you're including contractions in your writing? That's an interesting one.

 

[sophism]

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

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.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I tend to repeat the same word several times in a paragraph. I really need to look for that when I proofread and edit my stories.

 

[MrPixel]

As in you want to make sure you're including contractions in your writing? That's an interesting one.

I'm (or "I am") guessing MrE is referring to dialog. Real people use contractions in their everyday chatter. I used to have that issue in my own fiction writing, habit from many years writing technical documentation.

 

[Emotional]

As in you want to make sure you're including contractions in your writing? That's an interesting one.

Yeah, instead of saying

"She is going to be angry they are not home."

I try to write how we talk.

"She's going to be angry they're not home."

 

[Emotional]

I tend to repeat the same word several times in a paragraph. I really need to look for that when I proofread and edit my stories.

I do the same thing.

When I am done I do a document search on crutch words I tend to overuse.

 

[KeithD]

Germanic sentences. I constantly need to look at chances to break them into smaller sentence chunks. I also omit quote marks frequently in writing drafts. I solve that by doing a separate "find" pass for double quote marks after the last spelling check.

 

[Blind_Justice]

What bad writing habits?

I AM PERFECTION INCARNATE!

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I need to be more careful with tiny mistakes that my editor might (justifiably) miss, such as switching Alex and Alexa's names in a sentence, and name typos, like Tribly instead of Trilby. This can knock a reader out of their immersion.

And since I tend to be a series writer, what I really need to do is think things through ahead of time so that I quit having great ideas down the road that conflict with anything I might have said earlier, and require me to alter canon. I need to stop painting myself into a corner. This is most common in the Alexaverse, since it is by far my most expansive series with the most characters. I think the Alexaverse has more characters than all my other stories put together, and that's including The Great Khan. Yikes.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Sucking at sucking... Balls.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Sucking at sucking... Balls.

But seriously ... Distractions 100%
Instagram is a story killer. And Tik Tok.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

And lit Ah forums...

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

I think I'm doing better at avoiding excessive use of 'just,' especially where 'only' is more helpful for the reader. What I've realized recently is that I write 'get/getting/got' when that isn't descriptive enough. I make a point now of looking for other, more descriptive verbs.

Usually I make the necessary changes in rewrites. In a first draft, I often become so amped during a passage that the sentences run on and on. I don't mind this, because I know I'll chop them up later. A run-on shows that I was really, um, involved in the writing, and maybe I should provide more detail.

 

[oggbashan]

I tend to repeat the same word several times in a paragraph. I really need to look for that when I proofread and edit my stories.

Although I might do that in the first draft, I usually spot them on edits, unlike name changes.

 

[Djmac1031]

Repeated words are definitely a problem for me, especially repeated adjectives.

I'm constantly consulting Google for synonyms in the editing process.

Also, I tend to find myself in a constant battle between being descriptive and being TOO descriptive.

It can highten the sex scenes, sure, but it can also be too distracting tacking on too many descriptors.

 

[lovecraft68]

And lit Ah forums...

The forum can be good for advice, but not conducive at all to productivity.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

My bad habit is being fucking hilarious at the wrong time.

Like I sit down and tell myself I'm gonna write a blow job that is hot. And then I write this:

Jun tries to find a comfortable position to put his face in his partner's crotch. It's not as easy as it looks. Especially not in an enclosed space where nobody can stand. Awkwardly sitting on his knees, bent forward it is. Yuma's cock twitches, gently thwacking Jun in the face. Jun looks it over, taking the base into his hand. It's a penis. Not a lot to say about it now that it's not actively driving him up a wall. It's different from his own penis, but the expected parts are there, all penis-like.

 

[B_Couric]

The word "just". When I write I have to go through the whole thing once "just" to remove all the unnecessary "justs"

 

[Handley_Page]

My inability to finish a story. . . .

 

[davion2308]

I get excited for some alone time, I write about 900 words and then sit there for an hour figuring out what went wrong with what I wrote. And then I just kind of disappear for a month, away from my writing.

 

[Djmac1031]

My inability to finish a story. . . .

Oh how I've been struggling with that one lately. I have at least three right now sitting unfinished because the premise started strong but the endgame is still unclear.