Tend to have a lot of words with the ending 'ly'
I also tend to throw in a lot of 'buts,' as well as start out my paragraphs with prepositions.
Luckily I know this and scan for these frequently.
Now, of course, if I am having a bad day and am struggling just to get words on the page, I write all the adverb, conjoining, run-on sentences I want. I go to town. Let 'em rip.
But at some point I need to make my work, you know, enjoyable to read.
So over the course of a decade, I have learned my bad habits. I know where I go when I am not in the zone. I can easily identify when I wrote at not-quite-the-level I would like.
Let's be clear there are times when I think I DID write well. Then see all those 'badly,' 'hungrily,' 'angrily,' entries and go wow, I wrote 'crapily.' :-)
For me, this makes any re-write so much easier. I know where I screwed up and since I have had to fix it so many times, I have gotten pretty good at it.
So my assignment to you this week?
Figure out your 3 worst bad habits when you are not writing in the zone. Now go back to a section you are not happy with. Check for the big three. What can you do to 'fix' them?
Now how about you head over to Plain Jane here and see if I managed to recover from my addition to conjunctions :-)
If you decide to read the entire novel, here is a 50% off coupon: RH88E
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I agree, every writer has there little bugs they create in their writing. That's why writing is really rewriting.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your post. Have a great day.
Oh, do I have bad habits. When you know your bad habits it makes the editing process so much easier. Good post :)
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh. I decided to start following you after I read your profile. Too funny, and way true. Love that. Nice blog and great post. Thanks for the follow on Twitter. If you're interested, take a gander over to my blog. Love to have you.
ReplyDeleteGreat advice here. After 18 months of constant writing I'm starting to stop myself from typing certain words like really, I think, in fact and actually before they hit the screen:) Practice definitely helps! I think....:)
ReplyDeleteI write Noh too! Did you attend this year's Noh Drama workshop in Dallas? Keep in touch.. Alley alleypat@tx.rr.com
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this post.
ReplyDeleteExhibit A--- While I can admit to every travesty in my writing, worrying a page through my own editor's eye, as I so often do is completely devastating to my fragile writer's esteem. I find a small bit (really lots)of delight in knowing that I desperately need an editor and yet... there's this little button on the right of each post screaming PUBLISH. Not only can I push this, but I have all rights to. The earth doesn't have to move and for now, I am good with that.
Thanks for the space.
Tynisha