Comments on: The bad writing virus

By: Joanna St. James

Joanna St. James — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:27:35 +0000

ha ha overuse definitely overuse of words I cant help it if am in love with a word can I?

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 18:26:37 +0000

Overuse of certain words.I didn't think I had this problem, but on yet another edit of my manuscript, it became glaringly obvious that I do. One word, just a little throwaway word that you wouldn't normally notice here or there, actually popped up twenty-seven times in my manuscript. Well, actually, it was more than that, but I stopped counting at twenty-seven because I was mortified, and so I started finding and rewording almost every sentence that contained the offending word. The whole thing was enough to make me break out in hives.

By: Em-Musing

Em-Musing — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:03:43 +0000

I have RADD – Reader Attention Deficit Disorder. I tend to write short because I like to read shorter sentences. But if a story is compelling, I don't notice style, only substance.

By: Kelly Wittmann

Kelly Wittmann — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:57:26 +0000

I will often find myself "going Hemingway," but I've learned to recognize it and pull myself back. Still, better that than "going Faulkner." God forbid!

By: Jason Myers

Jason Myers — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:17:44 +0000

Have to agree with the overuse of description too. Just finished reading a Jack Reacher novel and without the longueurs of description, the book would have been half the length!

But of course, when I write, I leave out too many descriptions. I have to go back in and add the things in my wee little mind.

Get outta my way, description--I've got a story to tell!

By: Suzi McGowen

Suzi McGowen — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:44:27 +0000

Repetition. Definitely repetition.

By: amy

amy — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:29:11 +0000

I have to second you on the overuse of description being a pet peeve. My first foul experience was with Hawthorne, and his pages upon pages of awfulness. I personally suffer from a love a parentheses and capitals. I attribute the former to a love of curves in general, and the latter to a fondness for raising my voice.

By: M.J.B.

M.J.B. — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:45:11 +0000

**Had to make a correction!

In my most recent first draft, I noticed a few horrible things:

1) WAY too much pointless dialogue, which I relied on way too much in a way I THOUGHT would forward the story, when it actually made the story boring as hell.

2) Recycling certain "unique" word usages and sentence structures multiple times.

These were the biggies, and it was quite a fun challenge to fix them!

By: BethDazzled

BethDazzled — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:33:10 +0000

I simply can't control the long dash usage. Of course, the fact that when I speak I tend to spring off into tangents–finding novel ideas in everything from commercials to nail polish color names (that one happened!)–may explain it.

By: Taymalin

Taymalin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:17:40 +0000

Shorter Hemmingway. I'm not guilty of short sentences just in fiction, I tended to use them in my essays as well. I usually managed to pull off a B grade, but my essays were always far under the expected word count.