Ah, another one of my problems! I revise too much as well, while I should be continuing the story. A real problem, that is, for me.
I love using expletives - and I should add - I tend to use and abuse dashes. I also use understatement and sentences which are fairly long but grammatically correct, as well as being alliterated to an astonishing degree, quite often. I am a huge fan of self-demonstrating posts.
Not exactly a bad thing, but I use four-dot ellipses at the end of sentences (three for the ellipses, one for the period). I write very long, jointed sentences much of the time. Makes for difficulty when I'm doing school essays graded according to sentence-count XD. I'm trying to stop taking the easy way out with dropped-in appearance-describers ("She batted her deep blue eyes, etc."), but it's proving at least a bit difficult. I guess old habits never die :redface:. On an off-topic note, I just realized that you can stretch the quick reply box. Sweet!
I find my writing is really really incorrect by writing standards. I'm an unintentional fan of commas, meaning I usually end up using them without thinking, and put them in places they shouldn't be. I also find that I'm not a big fan of the " ,and" conjuction. For some odd reason that just doesnt show up in my writing at all. Neither does "and then". "And then" drives me insane oddly enough. When my composition teacher was correcting my papers and kept putting in "and then" I seriously was ready to pull my hair out oddly enough. I do tend to use a lot of big vocabulary in my sentences when I should probably keep them short and simple. Hmmm what else... Duh XD "..." I seem to use them mostly for when characters hesitate in their speech. Or when I want to force readers to take a long pause. I actually have no idea if that's how they're supposed to be used but I do it. I'm big on fragments though. It's my trademark with writing. Anytime my friends or teacher sees a paper with a lot of fragment sentences they know it's mine. But my fragment sentences aren't things like "He went." They're more like "She was a dangerous force. Literally." That kind of thing. To me it seems to add more depth to things sometimes. That and the way I sometimes use it drives in an important point. But all my teachers used to drill me about how incorrect it was. My composition teacher made me write five essays just to try and drill it out of me. It didn't work. Seriously. I know there's more about my writing, I just can't think of it right now. I know I mostly keep it very literate in form of sentences. Like there is no poor english in any of my writing at all. My friends are always going on because I don't use slang in my writing, and all my charaters' dialect is like super proper. Which is a problem when you're trying to make them all different. But that's all I can think of for now. It's a lot I know, but that's how my writing is. I do a lot of it. Which is probably why I'm currently going through my novel and taking out a lot of stuff. So much fun. XD
I write so much dialogue that my stories are nearly plays. I'm very verby, too. I think a lot of adjectives is lazy writing, so instead of saying a character was sad, or lonely, I would describe a scene where they are doing something sad or lonely, without saying they are so. I believe this is called 'unpacking' the character- letting the reader discover and see for themselves what that character is feeling rather than just telling them so. Also... I think the limits to 'incorrect' writing can be greatly expanded in story writing. I despise it when people tell me that I am using a fragment or a comma splice, when it is quite clearly on purpose.
I have shorter paragraphs but longer sentences The thing about me is that my stories are very short, and sometimes I-okay, I admit it, I tell instead of show.
I tease my characters so much. My writing is my personality completely and I usually have my main male protagonist and main female protagonist be love interests and use them to tease each other constantly. But at least it's good. Every single character I've written, people have described them as having so much personality and the friendships between the characters as being something unique and truly special. I find that odd as I don't try to do that but it comes off that way because there are some core beliefs that I've notice carry on in every single writing piece and one of them is a strong friendships/relationships between my characters. One habit is using fast paced words like suddenly and quickly a lot. It's usually fine in action scenes but I notice that I carry them onto the non-action scenes when I'm not paying attention.
Paragraphs that consist of only one or two sentences. Choppy sentences. That come out sounding. Like this. I, also, subscribe to the illness of -- dearest me! -- overusing, to a high degree, and with certain pain, commas and dashes.
I can't really start a chapter unless I have a compelling intro (or what i think is compelling...). If I can't have that pop, I can't seem to start.
Okay, this doesn't have anything to do with the actual writing, but, I can't plot! I simply venture out into my story with a blurry plot in my mind. Really, really bad, this is. Then I don't know how to start. :/
I tend to go off on tangents sometimes. When I have a thought midway through writing another idea, my prose can become irrational and all over the place. my mind races faster than my fingers and I end up with a clumsy paragrpah that keeps switching focus. I need to work on this. As for quirks, I tend to like ending chapters on cliffhangers. this is never really a conscious decision but I just tends to happen. I also use words for looking (glared, glowered etc) a bit too much and it always annoys me when I am editing to see how often I use it.
While I'm still trying to develope my own writing style, I do find that I have this same problem. The first draft of almost everything I write reads more like an excited child telling a story: "and then, and then, and then...". I think, like you, I just want to get every point down and in place before I forget, and then go back over afterwards and write it properly. PS: I just joined this awsome site! Hi everyone!
I've noticed recently that my stories seem to be crammed full of dialogue, characters conversing nearly always seems to be a big part of my short stories. I also can be a bit heavy on the commas sometimes.
I put in a lot of filler words in my first draft, which I then have to remove again in the second one, and I don't know why I do it... It's so annoying. Like, really, kind of, quite, etc.
I use dashes instead of commas sometimes lol >< When there's a rushed or fats paced scene, it seems to move the action forward faster and give a scene a more punchy feel =] And like a few people already, commas are everywhere in my writing >.< good sometimes =] But other times has to be revised in a re-write.
yes, I do that too, especially with that dreaded "suddenly", but then I try and remove most of them when polishing I have the same "unnecessary words" that you mention. sometimes Im aware of it while writing and then I think about if it is really needed or not. otherwise I remove it, but it makes the text look a little 'naked' without them, LOL. it adds strenght to what you're saying.
As I was writing I noticed that the further I go the more my writing develops. It makes sense, however, doesnt it have implications about my story? Wouldn't a reader notice the shift in styles? Or maybe this is something I'll just have to (I dont want to say 'fix') change as I go through the drafts?
I know just what you mean. Especially writing in first person, it's as though it takes a page or two before you really get to know your own character. If you're concerned with this showing in your writing, I'd say do some exercises. Write another story with the same characters, or the same setting or what have you. The stories don't have to be good or have a plot or anything, they're just for your own disposable use. Then when you feel you've gotten into the groove, start work on the real story. =)
