I like writing rows. That's good, because they're dramatic and usually trigger crisis moments. But they're also bad, because I then want to write the main character doing a lot of poor little me and feeling sorry for herself.
I also like writing bad men. This is a tricky one. I find my 'bad' men attractive and am appalled when people only see the negative side of them. I have to work at making my negative characters more rounded and appealing.
I have a terrible tendency to make my main characters a bit wet and feeble. I have a BIG sticker on my screen saying Positive People Planning with Purpose and that's helpful - I no longer have to do so many rewrites. But the tendency is still there and I have to fight it, and then check carefully for it in the rewriting process.
I'm a big fan of extraneous words: that, just, really are my top three. I don't fuss about it when writing, just use the Find and Replace option at the end.
I should have been born a Victorian, as I like both melodrama and sentimentality. Both are fine in very small doses, but I have to watch my writing to check that they don't take over.
So, those are my problems. What about yours?
4 comments:
I remember reading once about someone at Art College who only drew the creases in clothes. I think that’s me. I’m only interested in the evidence that someone has been there. I find descriptions boring, descriptions of people, descriptions of locations especially. I do, however, love writing dialogue and in my last novel I really indulged myself by writing huge chunks of it as chat logs. I have written plays (not that I’ve made any effort to get them performed) but I’m surprised I don’t do more. Some of my flash pieces are just dialogue and I also wrote a short story once in which we only hear what two people are thinking, nothing else.
I can get stuck in endless iterations about the meaning of life, wearing a deeper and deeper groove until everyone is stupefied. My men all tend to be bad, too. Oh dear. I love writing about clothes and shopping but at least I am aware how much that could limit the appeal of my work. I've recently discovered the joy of writing rows. I think it must be the drama and the tension which is so enjoyable. My WIP has got one massive, overwhelming, screaming row in it, a meltdown. It was huge fun to write and great fun to read. I don't think I need to add any more rows to that book. Come to think of it, there was a really good row (or more?) in Nice Girls Do, and yes, Sarah, it was a really good read, so by all means carry on writing them.
My characters smile A LOT. They smile to convey all sorts of things, but at least I'm aware of it and watch for it when editing!
Ditto on a tendency to overuse "just". I discovered this when I created a Wordle cloud of ms. I can't not do it. I just - simply - have do a search and replace at some point.
My biggest problem is that the first scene usually takes up a quarter of the word count. I have to create natural breaks!
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