Knowing Your Writing Preferences

We all have writing preferences, the stuff we find easiest to write. Through lots of writing you learn which your preferences are and what the good and bad points are of that style. In the workshopping group I belong to, one writer has a tendency for poor little me, another is fond of hyper-realistic descriptions but not much action, and the third likes characters lying back in the bath and reflecting on what's just happened. And as for me...

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?

She knew that she was a Happy Thatter

The more that you write the more that you realise that you have some little quirks. I like that. Hmmm. Perhaps I should rephrase that. The more I write the more I realise I have some little quirks. Yes, I'm a happy thatter. Give me an opportunity and I'll give it a that. I don't mean to drop in thats here, there and everywhere but, like sufferers from Tourette's, I can't help myself. That is literally my problem.

Of course, none of my thats are, strictly speaking, wrong. They make grammatical sense. They are correct English. But they clutter up my prose like nick-nacks on a Victorian mantelpiece. The speech rhythms are clunkier. Take the Anthony Trollope title He Knew He Was Right. How much more stylish that He Knew That He Was Right. One version works, the other doesn't and all that divides them is an innocent little that.

Most documents I write I have to run a speedy search and destroy mission for superfluous thats using the Global Edit facility. It takes ages, but I'm happier as a result, and my prose reads just that little bit more easily. (That one passed the that test.) One of my writing friends is fine on thats. Her problem is adverbs. Another has a fondness for exclamation marks. We all have our writing problems. I know I am a Happy Thatter. What's yours?

My next event will be speaking at Corsham Library, Wiltshire with fellow New Romantics Lucy Diamond and Veronica Henry 3rd June at 7.30pm. Come and join us!

'Boo!' she said suddenly

'It's wonderful you're reading this blogpost,' she said happily. 'I love talking about redundant adverbs.'

'Is that so?' he said worriedly. 'It's not going to be one of those ones where you go on and on and on.'

'Of course not,' she said reassuringly.

'Well I'm not so sure,' he said grumblingly. 'You'll be telling me next that you shouldn't go round making them up just by adding a -ly on the end of adjectives.'

'Or even participles,' she said grumblingly as well. 'Even if Spellchecker doesn't correct them, it's still not good writing style.'

'So can't I ever use them?' he said questioningly.

She smiled consolingly at him. 'Sparingly,' she said.