Things You’ve Noticed In Your Writing

  • ThePiesEndure

    ThePiesEndure (115)

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    I realise I don't write about the weather or how it effects my characters, much; and I also don't mention extended family much.
    October 20th, 2013 at 03:53am
  • swell

    swell (150)

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    I have sassy independent female leads. Always. God forbid I write a weak character.

    I also tend to begin with dialogue and then have a bit of an explanation before I continue on with more dialogue.
    October 20th, 2013 at 09:55am
  • bullets are hailing.

    bullets are hailing. (250)

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    While I do write romance, I've noticed that I also like to add a platonic relationship in my stories. I like to make a girl and a boy interact with each other and only as friends and have a kind of brother and sister relationship.
    October 22nd, 2013 at 10:52pm
  • Formaldehyde.

    Formaldehyde. (150)

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    I've just realised that in almost every story I've written, at least one of my characters end up in a hospital at some point or another.
    October 23rd, 2013 at 10:32pm
  • bellamy blake

    bellamy blake (3280)

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    There's a lot of singing/allusions to Motown songs File
    October 29th, 2013 at 05:00am
  • Cat Fiction

    Cat Fiction (105)

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    There's a few things I'm very aware of and working on in my stories:

    1) Loads of dialogue. I don't know if it's necessarily a bad thing, because I like to think I'm pretty good at writing conversation between characters - but occasionally I'm sure it feels more like a script for readers. That being said I'm working on including more descriptive narrative. I'm really proud of the first chapter of my fanfic called "Magic" for this.

    2) I love writing drama and tragedy. It tends to be the easy route for me to take in my stories. Often times I'll end a story with someone dying, but I've heard that creates a weak ending or "the easy way out" when you don't know how to wrap something up. I'm working on it!

    3) I LOVE quirky characters. There is ALWAYS a quirky character in my stories. E.g. Mikey's character in my MCR fanfic "My Dream Nightmare" and David's character in my Simple Plan fanfic called "Simply an Island". There are similarities between the two. I need to work on making my characters' personalities a bit more diverse.

    4) Girl and guy best friends. When I was a kid I was a really girly tomboy. Boys were my best friends for the most part and so I often pull from that experience in my writing. Often times the guy and girl friendships in my stories either develop into love interests OR brotherly/sisterly relationships. I don't think it's something I care to work on or change, it's just something I'm aware of.
    October 29th, 2013 at 08:19pm
  • archivist

    archivist (660)

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    Repetition. "The end of the world is a small white room with a desktop Toshiba, a rundown swivel chair, a coffee stain, and a half-eaten turkey sandwich." I will probably mention that turkey sandwich another fifteen times before this chapter is complete.

    "Normal" names that sound just a little strange. Oliver is a legitimate, decently common name, somewhat less so than, say, Mark or James, but most (all) characters in most (all) of my stories have names like this. Common, but just strange enough to alert the reader that it's not a usual setting or time.
    November 29th, 2013 at 03:54am
  • ponder hop.

    ponder hop. (100)

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    1) My main characters who tend to turn out very well are mainly young 16-19 year old boys.
    2) I never use the word 'said'. Very, very rarely I use it.
    3) Common names are almost taboo. It's not a strict rule but for simple plain characters they do just fine. tehe
    December 18th, 2013 at 11:52am
  • southpaw

    southpaw (565)

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    I guess I really, really like pairing up goofballs and grumps, whether they're siblings, best friends, or lovers. Carrie and Doug, Andy and Anthony, Brendan and Luke, Kyle and Brady, Cody and Kevin, June and Tyson, Tegan and Shira...argh. Thinking about it makes me worried that I'm unoriginal but I swear these characters are not all the same. Facepalm
    January 25th, 2014 at 11:18pm
  • kitsch

    kitsch (195)

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    1. I try to do comic relief with one liners during "serious" conversations. Because otherwise it would be too serious for my liking.
    2. I usually try to avoid "said" even though it's not necessarily a crime. I guess that means my writing is flowery. Shifty
    3. It's an accurate assumption that my characters are typically middle class citizens. . .I need to change that up, oops.
    4. I research the names of my OC characters and attempt to tie it in with heritage, but not to the point of it being unrelatable, so to speak.
    5. I like starting and ending stories with one liners as well. One trick ponying it up, I guess.
    January 26th, 2014 at 07:33am
  • lonely girl.

    lonely girl. (250)

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    My writing tends to go downhill the closer I get to the middle of the story. The beginning and ending are - to my eyes - brilliant quality.
    January 26th, 2014 at 09:02am
  • aubs

    aubs (420)

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    I tend to use a lot of comma's. In English class, I was taught to always but a comma before conjunctions, but when I do that, a few people tell me that I use too many comma's. Oh well.
    February 11th, 2014 at 12:07am
  • Katie Mosing

    Katie Mosing (33815)

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    I say 'honesty' a little too much for it to be healthy.
    February 15th, 2014 at 06:56pm
  • southpaw

    southpaw (565)

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    Gooooood lord, I abuse caps lock in Spin. Facepalm
    March 30th, 2014 at 11:21pm
  • archivist

    archivist (660)

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    I tend to overuse commas and semicolons. Oh well, at least I think I use them correctly.
    March 31st, 2014 at 07:56am
  • rust cohle

    rust cohle (310)

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    When I think I've written too much dialogue I do this thing somewhere between reported and direct speech where it's like:

    So he asks why she's so interested, because, really, it's none of her goddamn business, and if he's being honest he's offended on a pretty much personal level that she thinks he's worth that little, so if she'd kindly drop that line of questioning, that'd be great, thanks.

    I don't even know how to describe it. It's weird.
    April 7th, 2014 at 05:27am
  • nearly witches.

    nearly witches. (15250)

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    sheepcat;:
    My writing tends to go downhill the closer I get to the middle of the story. The beginning and ending are - to my eyes - brilliant quality.
    100% this.
    All of my characters have that one little word they repeat constantly, which is something I do in real life. For instance, Zac in my new story Looking Up likes to call everyone "dude", Demi from Girls Who Play Guitar finishes a lot of sentences or answers others with "wicked" and Lara from What It Is to Wonder likes to use the f word whenever and wherever she can.
    April 14th, 2014 at 10:22pm
  • The Real Mitt Romney

    The Real Mitt Romney (250)

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    I apparently like green eyes because every other random character has green eyes. I also like to repeat things. I apparently can't write in the point of view of a girl. And most things I write are very ambiguous and may seem like I slapped them together. Spoiler alert: lol I don't edit anything and plan 1% of the time.
    May 24th, 2014 at 03:58am
  • FuckNo

    FuckNo (100)

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    I've had to genuinely be conscious about this since it was pointed out to me before, and that's that I tend to use the verb 'dart' a lot.

    So things like, "He darted across the room," or "She darted down the stairs," or even "Darting over to him, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly."

    Stuff like that. I need to vary my word (especially verb) choices more.
    May 27th, 2014 at 07:00am
  • peach kitten

    peach kitten (165)

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    I have a habit of using "for a moment" or starting my chapters off with "the".
    May 27th, 2014 at 06:06pm