What do you think your worst habits as a writer are?

[SucculentTreats]

For me, I'm lazy when it comes to proofreading. When I actually do proofread, the glaring errors I find are embarrassing! It is always silly things that I find; mistakes that could be easily corrected if I were more disciplined and less lazy.

Asides from that, whenever I start one story that could become a series, I start three or four more, because I get these ideas for new stories and I abandon old ones.

 

[vanmyers86]

Procrastination and not scheduling consistent times to write.

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

Procrastination and not scheduling consistent times to write.

Ditto.

 

[SimonDoom]

That's easy for me: lack of discipline in allocating a time of day to write, every day, and making myself write. Sometimes I do this, and when I do the results are great. I get a lot of writing done. It's extremely satisfying. But most of the time my discipline is lacking. I'm not a professional writer and I don't make any money from it, so I don't give "writing time" the priority that I might otherwise.

 

[DryLips]

Skipping words that are in my head, not accurately putting down on paper the images I have in my mind, proofreading my own material, missing commas in compound sentences, putting words in the wrong order (dyslexia)...oh...there's too many.

 

[oggbashan]

Not being consistent with the characters' names.

I start off with vanilla names for characters until they become established and I change to an appropriate name using search/replace. But sometimes I forget the changed name or forget that I have chosen name x instead of name y.

I know I do this but I still miss it on a final edit.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Procrastination and not scheduling consistent times to write.

This.

 

[whowrotethisshit]

I'm impatient and wordy. My plots lack substance. When I write, I sometimes write a completely different word than I meant to and even though I'll run through it and edit a few times, i'm constantly changing stuff so it sometimes happens on a final edit. Which means I don't catch it. And then I publish it. And that sucks. I should really use the volunteer editor feature.

 

[NotWise]

Rewriting and editing until I have things just so. Probably no-one else would ever notice those details, but I do it anyway.

 

[Polyacrylate]

Deciding that what I've worked on for a few weeks (at least!) is garbage and either scrapping it, or consigning it to the "inactive projects" folder (which might as well be deleting it).

 

[_Lynn_]

Changing/rearranging words and sentences from whatever I wrote the last time before writing more. Always.

 

[OneAuthor]

Getting too caught up in trying to make every sentence perfect as I write them, instead of just letting the words flow and putting off the proofreading/editing until later.

 

[Maeven_quinn]

Skipping words that are in my head, not accurately putting down on paper the images I have in my mind, proofreading my own material, missing commas in compound sentences, putting words in the wrong order (dyslexia)...oh...there's too many.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who has this issue. I’m constantly dropping articles or prepositions. Sometimes, I’ll double words words right next to each other and I don’t know why I do that.

Drives me crazy. Increases proofread time. Don’t know why.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Procrastination and not scheduling consistent times to write.

That’s me. Procrastination is my middle name. That, and I bounce around between stories writing half a dozen at the same time and missing deadlines.

 

[HeyAll]

Tending to use the same words/phrases/descriptions a lot.

I try to catch myself and find new words and phrases.

One good way of finding out my bad habits is to use control+F to do a word search. My biggest offenders are "really" and "just."

As for descriptions, writing the orgasm scene is my least favorite. How many times can you write the same thing?

 

[Handley_Page]

My inability to conclude the damned thing

 

[maybee79]

Tending to use the same words/phrases/descriptions a lot.

I try to catch myself and find new words and phrases.

One good way of finding out my bad habits is to use control+F to do a word search. My biggest offenders are "really" and "just."

As for descriptions, writing the orgasm scene is my least favorite. How many times can you write the same thing?

I was coming here to say this.

It whacked me on the head when I re-read two of my stories recently that were originally written years apart and I'd used the EXACT - word-for-word - descriptions.

Also, like others, I keep re-writing sentences instead of getting to the end, THEN editing.

 

[DarkWhispers2U]

Worst habits

Procrastination. Allowing myself to get frustrated too easily. Also, working on too many projects at once.

 

[SimonDoom]

As for descriptions, writing the orgasm scene is my least favorite. How many times can you write the same thing?

The bane of erotic story writing, I think. One can come up with an infinite number of situations and scenarios leading up to the act, but when one is confronted with the task of writing one's way through the act itself, and its climax, it's very hard to be original.

 

[_Lynn_]

As for descriptions, writing the orgasm scene is my least favorite. How many times can you write the same thing?

That's one of the reasons I stopped writing erotica.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Poor grammar, going for what 'sounds right' in my head rather than taking the moment and thinking it out.

Also, repetitive word choice, which can be useful to drive a concept home but is often just bad writing.

I don't consider writing at random times a negative for myself, as this isn't my job, and lots of other things in my life have a priority, but I can see how that could be a negative for many.

 

[MichaelGH]

Overly complaining about how bad a writer I am on these message boards.

 

[yukonnights]

Deciding that what I've worked on for a few weeks (at least!) is garbage and either scrapping it, or consigning it to the "inactive projects" folder (which might as well be deleting it).

I think this is a problem for me too. Sometimes I believe it's because I have worked on it and proofed it so many times that all of the initial interest is long gone. Maybe it's a lack of self confidence — and I'm also a 'fricken perfectionist' in everything I do — so that often makes it hard to like what I've written because it's never perfect. I'm not sure this is technically a "writing habit", but it's an impediment for sure.

For a true bad habit; I habitually double space and miss the shift on capital I such that it comes out as i. I've learned to run a find/replace on these two bad habits (thanks whoever invented find/replace !)

 

[yukonnights]

The bane of erotic story writing, I think. One can come up with an infinite number of situations and scenarios leading up to the act, but when one is confronted with the task of writing one's way through the act itself, and its climax, it's very hard to be original.

I think one way to help keep it fresh is to not abandon the thoughts and emotions of the ones having sex. The actual physical actions may be pretty generic, but the thoughts and emotions are unique for everyone. Personally, I don't think I have a problem with this aspect of erotica — but, now that it's been brought up, maybe I really do and don't know it So thanks for adding another problem to my list.

 

[SynSlave]

I'm not going to say procrastination because I think it should be right up there with breathing and thinking in terms of human nature. That's to say, anyone who doesn't do it is most likely dead or lying (I am neither lol).

I've managed to personally make great strides in my previous Achilles heel(s) in jumping around (isn't it hard to write the scene you're on when you currently have such great ideas for a later scene?!); and world building for five days for every 500 hundred words I manage to finalize. Its taken several years though and like an addict, once I go down one of those paths again it might very well be the last time you see me--so I'm strict on myself with those in particular.

I do still suffer from editing and rewriting before I finish a story but with shorter concepts (here) it's not as problematic.

My latest growing issue is this site and specifically the forums. While it encourages me to focus on writing in general, it's often a hurdle I need to vanquish en-route to the actual work on a specific story. I find myself putting more words here or more effort in helping someone else with their work then in a current project of mine over a block of time, when my intent is to keep the ratio the other way around.

These forums are quickly becoming an enjoyable and semi-necessary evil. Gotta keep it in check though!