Popular Writing Blunders!

Gillhoughly · Oct 1, 2007

From E.E. Knight's blog.

http://eeknight.livejournal.com/283350.html

What are your favs? Which ones have you committed? (And are about to edit out!)

Enjoy or avoid, whatever applies!

Prawn · Oct 1, 2007

Gillhoughly said:
From E.E. Knight's blog.

http://eeknight.livejournal.com/283350.html

What are your favs? Which ones have you committed? (And are about to edit out!)

Enjoy or avoid, whatever applies!

I am suing! He stole the outline of my book!

Azraelsbane · Oct 1, 2007

Thank God I've dodged the bullet on almost all of those. I think the one I mess up on is the paragraph thing. *blushes* I really have no idea how far my paragraphs are supposed to be indented, and since I wrote my current novel in separate chapter files, some of my indents from chapter to chapter aren't the same.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot the joker, that's the other one I'm guilty of, but in a different way. People usually aren't smiling, they're smirking. I have to cut a lot of smirking out after my first drafts.

TheIT · Oct 1, 2007

Fun (and scary) stuff. I recognized a few of those in my own work.

For me, Logorrhea and The Joker are my trouble spots in first draft. Sometimes I throw too many words at the idea when I'm composing because I'm still figuring out what I'm trying to say, and when I'm looking for physical description my first instinct is to have the characters smile. These are definitely things to edit out in my next draft.

dolores haze · Oct 1, 2007

Does this mean I have to take out that pudenda shaving scene?
I swear it advances the plot.

Devil Ledbetter · Oct 1, 2007

Every time I edit, I find more adjectives to remove.

Marian Perera · Oct 1, 2007

Devil Ledbetter said:
Every time I edit, I find more adjectives to remove.

Adjectives and adverbs. They breed like bunnies when I'm not looking.

Sage · Oct 1, 2007

The Joker for me, definitely.

PeeDee · Oct 1, 2007

E.E. Knight is so cool. What a great list.

Will Lavender · Oct 1, 2007

ALMOST! Fall into that trapdoor allthetime.

Andre_Laurent · Oct 1, 2007

Sage said:
The Joker for me, definitely.

Crap! Me too.

Shady Lane · Oct 1, 2007

I'm definitely a slave to waking up scenes. I've never started a novel with one, but, yeah....I just wrote one. And there are at least four in the WIP.

Damn.

sunna · Oct 1, 2007

Aw, shoot. I guess I better delete that two page description of my MC's boobs...

*kicks dirt*

This is a great list. I probably committed about half of these sins in the learning process, sad to say. I prefer to believe I've edited the worst of it out since.

What? Quit looking at me like that. I did.

Soccer Mom · Oct 1, 2007

I'm a horrible weasel worder in first drafts. I've learned to simply go with it when writing and then edit it out later. But I'm better about doing it as often. Almost.

Sunkissed27f · Oct 1, 2007

Hmmm...that's funny A LOT of romance authors LOVE waking up and going to bed scenes. *wink wink*

Sage · Oct 1, 2007

Oh, I do have a couple of those. Actually, my MC wakes up a lot more than we see her go to sleep because she keeps getting knocked out.

ChaosTitan · Oct 1, 2007

Sage said:
Actually, my MC wakes up a lot more than we see her go to sleep because she keeps getting knocked out.

You have that problem, too? :ROFL:

blacbird · Oct 1, 2007

Submitting anything to anybody. It's been a blunder every time I've done it.

caw

Shady Lane · Oct 1, 2007

My MC has a lot of nightmares! He has to wake up!

I'm depressed.

Sassee · Oct 1, 2007

I'm guilty of 3, 9, and occasionally 19.

That was actually better than I was expecting...

Azraelsbane · Oct 1, 2007

Hmm, come to think of it I have two waking up scenes in my novel...three if you count the one that's in 3rd limited from another person's pov. Oh wait, four, all different chars at different times, though it only has to do with being asleep once. The rest of the times they've had the shit kicked out of them...

You know what, it's possible I'm far more screwed than I first thought.

Voyager · Oct 1, 2007

I've done all of them, in one paragraph. Do I get extra points for describing a penis waking up?

ugh, I'm having a crisis of faith.

Azraelsbane · Oct 1, 2007

Voyager said:
I've done all of them, in one paragraph. Do I get extra points for describing a penis waking up?

ugh, I'm having a crisis of faith.

Yeah, I've been having one of those for the past two weeks. It's not getting any better, and I'm not changing the waking up scenes. Setting myself up for failure I guess. At least the book doesn't open with a character waking up. :Thumbs:

Josie · Oct 1, 2007

What's wrong with waking up from sleep a few times?

My heroine is under a lot of stress and gets tired

That darn E.E. Knight's blog!!

Voyager · Oct 1, 2007

Azraelsbane said:
Yeah, I've been having one of those for the past two weeks. It's not getting any better, and I'm not changing the waking up scenes. Setting myself up for failure I guess. At least the book doesn't open with a character waking up.

Kiwi and I were just talking about you, were your ears ringing? I didn't know that Elysian flames excerpt was the opening. It certainly does start off at a dead run. Don't have a crisis, I know you'll get an agent. You're writing is too good. I'm just feeling overwhelmed because as near as I thought I was to finished, I have so much more to do. But that's just my inexperience and I need to suck it up and take it like a big girl.

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