What're yours? I tend to repeat words a lot (example: in the Differences thread I said "Probably" three times!), without even realizing it. Also, a lot of the time I'll try and be "creative" by picking fun sounding words, but eventually it just doesn't make any sense. And of course, my grammar could always be better.
Umm...changing from first person to second person as I write, I guess. I also may repeat words. The worst is when I forget the spelling of a commonly used word (choclate, traquility, humourous).
I have a lot of bad problems. I procrastinate; I'm redundant AND worry too much about being redundant, if there's a slightly uncommon word used within pages of each other I have to spend twenty minutes finding a new word; When I'm using paper I'll write feverishly and then when I go back and read it theres spelling errors and grammar errors, and I think once the word the three times in a row because I stopped on it, thought, and continued with it; Worse though, I keep turning what will probably be good stories into tripe, like my main story: Everything goes plodding along how I want it to, all of a sudden(!): Zombies and a necrophilic weirdo are attacking the girl in the house, and a crazy lady in a body thong is attacking the guys in the woods with a bug army! Zombies and bugs? I didn't order any of that! and hell, where do you get a body thong in a medieval world anyway
revising while I am writing. I am horrible about that. I stop on a thought and go back to the top and start proofreading and changing before I am even done with the piece. I have really got to stop that. It makes it hard to finish a piece when I do that. lol.
Eh... I do that too. When coupled with my already long concept process, nothing ever really gets done.
haha, yeah I hear ya. I have this great idea and it turns into a million great ideas while I'm writing then I stop and think about it and then I start reading what I've already wrote while I'm thinking about it. Then I revise and quit thinking about the ideas and the viscious cycle starts all over again. it's horrible.
As an example, I save my files as something like Name00.00. With all the revisions, it's like a new story every other 5 saves. Then, after I change the story a little, I go to more researching. Always trying to look up new stuff, and just learning in general seems to prompt me to redo my longer projects constantly.
One annoying thing I do is I tend to go a little comma - happy. I use way too many commas in my writing, and I can never figure out why...
Coming up with a novel idea would be my biggest drawback. If you haven't noticed yet, (ahem) I sure haven't come up with a doggone thing so far. So I guess that would be it for me. Although I have to admit that I may just be too chicken to start a story. Squawk...Squawk....Squawk. Thar ya go.
I seem to have this fixation on adjectives that I just cannot shake. I was rereading some of my older short stories, looking for new inspiration, just today, actually, and it was blantantly obvious that I was trying way to hard. It just came out very...amateurish. It literally made me depressed, because the piece was most fixated on wasn't written that long ago. It was like every sentence was Adjective noun verb. Adjective noun verb. Adjective, adjective noun verb. (Nah, I give myself a bit more credit than that, but you see my point.)
The fact that I don't know any of them grammar rules, yet if I have to do a test, I pass perfectly. It pisses me off that I barely know the terms(adjective, nouns, all that) yet when I write, I've got no grammar problems. >.>
Guide to Grammar and Writing OWL: Handouts: Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling English Rules | Grammar Rules | Punctuation and Capitalization Rules (last seems best, only one I've actually used before) And now you know... And knowing is half the battle! Road To Grammar - Your road to better grammar (from what I can tell, this is a test)
Inconsistency in my writing habits. I'll be really really descriptive for all my exposition, and as soon as I start my dialogue, all my adjectives fly out the window and I'm left with nothing but short, terse statements that sound horrible. It's like it's either dialogue or exposition, but never at the same time. I have to work really hard to keep my pace and my tone the same throughout (or changing only in deliberate places). I also hate coming up with words for dialogue. Not the dialogue proper, but the "he says," "she argues," etc. I always feel bad when I've used the word "says" five times in a row, but at the same time, it feels like those are just common words that people accept and don't anazlyze, and if you use too many descriptive terms for how people are saying things, it gets overdone far too quickly. Like the guy who wrote Eragon. I think he used the word "says" five times total in the entire book.
That is by far my WORST habit! To make it worse, I have my browser settings to highlight and underline and otherwise make my errors stand out so that I feel I HAVE to correct them right there! Which is great for my column, and articles and web content, but not so great for creative writing! lol
I don't plan ahead and I have a habit of writing one-two chapters then stopping and starting something else. That and I edit when I'm not happy with something instead of waiting until the draft is complete. I know it works for some though.
Changing the style depending on my mood rather than on the described situation - I have yet to form my own consistent style, I'm too influenced by what I read, and often I can clearly see from my choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, which books left lately their impression on me. Quite frustrating.
Misspelling words pisses me off. One time I kept spelling 'tongue' as 'tounge', and it was distracting me. I swear I must have got it wrong two dozen times. In the end I forced myself to write a full page of just 'tongue tongue tongue' before I could get it right. By then I was lost. Not finding the right word is annoying too. Ill go to explain something, and wont be able to think of the right word. Transient? nah. Invisible? nah. spectral? nah. Then I spend 10 minutes looking up words and getting nowhere. Also, the early reviewing too, I waste a lot of time doing that.
My worst habit must be that I suck on my pen while writing. Often I scratch my nose or ear with it too, and I don’t always pay attention to what end of the pen I use. This can be really embarrassing in public places.
That's been happening a lot to me lately. There are so many words I wish I knew, so I could express myself easier. Augh. But instead of ten minutes, I end up wasting thirty. *shakes head*
For me, procrastination is number one on the list. It takes me forever to finish one novel. For example, I started one when I was 16. I'm now 18 and that book still isn't finished. But, it's finally getting there. Number two would be I write so fast, I don't relize the mistakes I made 'till I go back and read it myself and I tend to make a lot of mistakes. My most common one is repeating sentences. For example 'Cindy stared at me with the most intimidating eyes. Cindy stared at me with the most intimidating eyes.' (That sentence was made on the spot... not a part of one of my actual novels...) And number three would be my overuse of the word 'said'. I don't mean to do it as I try to use different words for that such as exclaimed, sang, shouted, demanded and so on, so on. But, somehow, said is used more than any of them. :S I also need to improve on my grammar a bit. Posting on roleplaying and writing forums helps a lot... I've improved A LOT in the past three months.
I miss spell words A LOT. it's worse on the computer than when I am writing by hand. I also just looked back at the main novel that I am working on and noticed I had written every-now-and-then three times... once is probably enoguh. But only just. I also have the bad habbit of changing font sizes and the type of font as well.
