tell me your tics

[badducky]

every writer has their tics.

what is that annoying thing you do in the first draft (that you whiff right over) which you subsequently must edit away in subsequent drafts?

i tend to fall into present tense when i'm writing past tense, and vice versa. can't seem to help it.

[sammyig]

My worst tic is that I use "unfortunately" so often that I make myself ill. I end up going back and deleting the oodles of "unfortunatelys."

[ChaosTitan]

Too many dialogue tags that aren't simply "said."

At least once I'll start calling someone by the wrong name, and be absolutely convinced that it's the right one. Sometimes I catch it before I finish the scene, sometimes I catch it while editing.

[blackbird]

I attach about every other clause with a semi-colon. It's a device that works when used judiciously, but for every semi-colon-joined clause I keep, I usually have to go back and edit about twenty others.

I'm still not sure how I fell into the habit, or why I do it so subconsciously. I think it's partly because I like the style when other writers do it, and I like the overall flow and pacing it gives the prose as I write. But when you've overkilled a device to the point where it's actively calling attention to itself, and distracting from the story, that's not so good. The problem is that I usually don't realize how much of a distraction it's created until I go back and revise.

[seun]

Far too many nods and shrugs. Also too much back story especially at the start.

[Serenity]

'almost'. I use it a lot. She almost said, he almost stopped, it almost felt like... etc. You get the point.

[aadams73]

"As" is the bane of my existence.

[Saundra Julian]

I use "just" excessively...it's a Southern thing!

[Serenity]

Far too many nods and shrugs. Also too much back story especially at the start.

Oh my God, my characters 'shrug' too much as well. I think, for me, it's because I am a person that does this a lot. :e2shrug:

[ChaosTitan]

Oh my God, my characters 'shrug' too much as well. I think, for me, it's because I am a person that does this a lot. :e2shrug:

Don't forget your habit of *adding* asterisks for *emphasis* on words. :ROFL:

[icerose]

I do just about every single one of these except the *.

[Southern_girl29]

Mine is saying the character ran her hands through her hair. I do that a lot. I'm going to have to take a lot of them out.

[Amiton]

More than any other issue in my writing, I think my present-past tense shifts (in both directions) are more pervasive and infuriating than any other issue in my writing. Other issues that arise commonly are being too wordy, excessive use of adverbs, adding extra "to be" verbs, excessive passive voice, and use of uncommon big words. By golly, though, that tense thing *kills* me.

Amiton.

[nevada]

I fall in love with a word and then repeat it. Several times. In one paragraph. It's a bad, bad thing. I also like sentence fragments. I'm not convinced that is the worst thing if it's within the character's voice. Some characters never talk in sentence fragments so I don't use them in their POV. But still, someone usually takes me to task for the fragments.

[badducky]

I also do a lot of grins and laughs.


When I'm editing, it's like I'm killing all the joy.

[Serenity]

Don't forget your habit of *adding* asterisks for *emphasis* on words. :ROFL:

Hey! I promised that I would try not to do that anymore! :tongue Remember, it takes something like 28 days to break a habit. LOL

icerose- the habit (for me) comes from posting to on-line RPG's on Yahoo Groups before they had their 'beta' edition where you could bold, italicize, etc. It's just a bad habit that I am trying to break to save poor Chaos' sanity while we write. :Ssh:

[Azure Skye]

I start sentences with 'well' a lot. arrgghh

[DeborahM]

Too many dialogue tags that aren't simply "said."

No replied, answered, confessed? Just said? I'm doomed! :e2thud:

Oh, the tense thing is my albatross.

Nevada brought up fragment sentences. It's amazing how many conversations you hear in public have fragmented sentences in them.

[Siddow]

I fall in love with gestures. Before I know what's going on, everyone in the room has the same facial tic, or they're all patting their thigh, or leaning forward in their seats. Simon says...adjust your glasses! Yeah, you! I know you don't wear glasses, but play along!

[Simon Woodhouse]

Mine is 'for a moment'. And in dialogue I use 'well' and 'then' too much, as in 'well, on your own head be it' and 'then we'd better get going'. When I'm editing, these things stand out by a mile, so I'm always baffled as to why I let them sneak in to start with.

[Rivana]

Fragmented sentences are the bane of my existence (at least according to some readers, I actually tend to like the poor dears) and my characters have a tendency to look, gaze, stare etc ad infinitum.

[Tracy]

I start sentences with 'well' a lot. arrgghh

So do I! And I have to go back and trim them strictly. I have watched myself and I talk like that too, but it is okay in speech I guess.

Also, all my characters say "Actually" way too much.

But at least if we are aware of it all, we can go back and change these things, no?

[janetbellinger]

On the other hand, in a world flooded with manuscripts and full of literary rules to follow, could tics end up being the one thing that defined the writer, made him/her identifiable from the masses? At least that person would have a voice. Or am I just being hopelessly, impossibly optimistic?

[wordmonkey]

THAT

Half of my first serious edit through the mss is removing "that" where it seems to have nested and begun breeding.

[janetbellinger]

Yeah, I am doing that now too, in my own writing.THAT

Half of my first serious edit through the mss is removing "that" where it seems to have nested and begun breeding.

[Saundra Julian]

Hello, my name is Saundra and I am a head-hopper extraordinaire!
Hell, I want everyone to think, and feel. <sigh> :e2writer:

[CaroGirl]

Prodigious use of the word "that." (A habit I believe I am finally beginning to break!)

But I've got nothing on my son; he has an actual tic disorder. Although his writing is fine.

[jpserra]

Mine are the and said. I spend hours going through an mms finding alternates for said. He ejected, he expelled, he retored...etc.

I'm only human. He confessed!

JPS

[The Lady]

Nods. I'm another nodder. Everyone just keeps nodding. I must nod a lot too. Sometimes I scream when I see the damn word on the page.

The other one which I keep trying to do, and my internal editor won't let me is write things like, "his eyes followed her". I know what I'm trying to say but I've seen too much mockery of this particular sentence construction.

Oh, and thats as well. Loads of thats. Still, it's a great way of knocking about 50 words of your word count when you have to to.

Oh, also still for some reason. I can use still in a lot of ways, sometimes within ten words of each other

[The Lady]

Mine are the and said. I spend hours going through an mms finding alternates for said. He ejected, he expelled, he retored...etc.

I'm only human. He confessed!

JPS

You are joking aren't you. Said is the king of words. It's the invisible word, the word that cannot be bettered, the word of choice for every occasion. Replace all other words with said.

She nodded wisely.

Then she edited to remove the adverb.

She nodded.

Then she edited to remove the tic.

She said.

[badducky]

Anybody else go through their WiP hunting for all these?

[Carrie in PA]

Nods, shrugs and smiles... and... something else... can't think of it offhand... hmmm... OH YEAH ellipses... I looooooooove me some ellipses. :D

Right now I'm having trouble with passing time smoothly. My beta told me my time jumps are jarring. So I'll either have to fix that or find a new beta. :ROFL:

[Tallymark]

"As" is the bane of my existence.

Oh, god yes. "As" is just about my worst word. It took me years to become aware of it, but once it was pointed out to me, I was horrified to find about a dozen of them in every paragraph. Someone is always doing something as they think about another thng, as so and so is doing something else, as they get ready to...etc, etc. My sentences were all strung together with two or three 'as'! So now I'm hyper-aware of 'as'; I always look out for it when editing.

[Nickie]

I don't suppose I have any "tics" left, but then I did more than 20 years over one manuscript. I've written and re-written many passages - and come to think of it, I'm still not completely satisfied. So, in another attempt I wrote the same story in another language, and added more chapters. Now it's complete.


Nickie

[MyFirstMystery]

My characters nod, grin, and laugh too frequently. Sometimes I read a passage I've written and visualize all of my characters as bobble head dolls, shreiking with laughter after every bit of dialogue.

Needless to say, I'm working on it.

MFM

[beezle]

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

[underthecity]

Nods, shrugs and smiles... and... something else... can't think of it offhand... hmmm... OH YEAH ellipses... I looooooooove me some ellipses.

Yeah, this is me too, all of it.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with a character nodding, smiling or shrugging, as long as it doesn't happen all the damn time.

An occasional "he nodded" I think is okay. But not when he nods so much his head is going to fall off.

However, I have lots of ellipses and dashes in my rough draft. I don't see what's wrong with them--dashes are great, and ellipses are so . . . suspenseful and thoughtful.

My biggest tic is "looking." My characters are always looking over at things and people. If anyone has a suggestion on how I can eliminate all the "looks," I'll pay you three dollars.

Strangely enough, I have the "saids" under control, simply out of reading all about dialogue tags and how to use them. I don't believe I've overused adverbs either, mostly because the rule has been drilled into my head so many times. Sure, some of them can go, but it's a light sprinkling throughout.

allen

[Amiton]

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play maes Jack a dull boy.

I'm not sure what a 'maes' is, but is Johnny coming to dinner? :tongue

I love that story (and get scared to death to read it).

Amiton.

[beezle]

Gaaah!

I can't believe I fudged it. And look, I can't edit it, 'cos you've quoted me.

Oh, I give up.

[roach]

THAT

Half of my first serious edit through the mss is removing "that" where it seems to have nested and begun breeding.

Oh man. Me too! The last pass I made through my manuscript before handing it to my betas was a search and destroy mission for thats. I removed 600 from a 90,000 word manuscript!

[Rashenbo]

My characters tend to "nod" way too often!! Everybody ends up nodding a few times and I've got to go back... it's like they are all a bunch of wiggle head dolls sitting on a dashboard... "nod, nod, nod"

[Rolling Thunder]

Originally Posted by wordmonkey
THAT

Half of my first serious edit through the mss is removing "that" where it seems to have nested and begun breeding.

Yeah, I am doing that now too, in my own writing.

Look! There's one now!;)

[TrainofThought]

I use, just, as, like, but, way too much. I’m screwed.

[Vomaxx]

I often use the same word twice in the same, or successive, sentences. This is not necessarily bad, of course, if you do it deliberately, but I do it and never notice it until the revision.

[Allie]

The word "looked" shows up all over the place in my writing. Between the looks people can give each other and the things they can look at, it's like tootsie rolls thrown at a parade.

[SpookyWriter]

I use, just, as, like, but, way too much. I’m screwed.You forgot so. I'm so screwed.

I try to mix up my sentence structure to avoid these common mistakes in writing. I catch myself using but and rewrite the sentence to avoid using it.

I know your pain, brother or sister.

[BiggerBoat]

My characters are constantly looking and turning. Sometimes they even turn to look.

[Ardellis]

My characters blink a lot, especially when someone has said or done something unexpected. I also have one who grins too often, but I fear that may be as much his tic as mine.

[SeanDSchaffer]

My tic is using passive voice too much.

Another one I have is Capitalizing where I Should not Be capitalizing.

The second one actually causes me a lot of grief when I try to correct it.

[Shadow_Ferret]

I have a big old but problem. It seems I write a lot of conjunctions, joining them at the but.

Conjunction junction, what's your function?

[Del]

Spelling. I wish I could spell. Vowels are interchangeable and double letters are optional.

[The Lady]

Spelling. I wish I could spell. Vowels are interchangeable and double letters are optional.

Oh, yeah, spellings are so hard. You know what else is hard. Commas. In or out. I take them out. I put them in. I hate commas. They mean nothing to me.