CHECK IN: DAY 8

[igenlode]

How is the writing going? Anything notable to report?

Question of the day: what tendencies are you aware of in your writing that you actively try to avoid?

Comments

[igenlode]

I finally uploaded my one-shot to AO3, where it almost immmediately got multiple views and two comments -- more than anything else I've posted in months!
Thus proving at least that the issue is not my writing, but my choice of subject matter...

Question of the day: what tendencies are you aware of in your writing that you actively try to avoid?

A beta-reader once told me that I kept adding an unnecessary 'own', e.g. "his own hand", "her own reply", where it wasn't called for -- and kept drawing attention to them in every new chapter until I stopped doing it! Ever since then I've been hyper-conscious of the word :-o

[glitteringstars]

I've surprisingly got a lot of writing done today. A bit over 1k words, including editing! I'm feeling just about confident that I can post it without cringing too much.

As for things I avoid in my fiction writing, it's adverbs. I blame most of my schooling on this. Adverbs are fine things to use and can often add flow to the work. But I still tend to forgo it because I'm a goddamn coward.

[igenlode]

I'm happy enough with adverbs (He went up the hill whistling cheerfully) but remember being told at some point that it was much more 'active' to use a verb ("Say 'hobbled' instead of 'limped painfully'").

Which of course when applied to dialogue can produce said-bookisms galore...