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Your weak spot?

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What's the area in your writing you need to work more on? For me it's spelling. Those damn homonyms piss me off! I had "peaked around the corner" instead of "peeked around the corner" in the first few paragraphs of my WIP. I think little things like that can't be avoided 100% though.

Here's a cool article. I don't feel so bad about confusing homonyms anymore. If you feel bad about grammar, spelling, and other simple elements of your writing you should work hard to correct them, but take a look at the article.

http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/01/24/15-famous-thinkers-who-couldnt-spell/

Now here's a bonus question: Was Hemingway, Austen, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, etc. bad writers because they couldn't spell, or perhaps everyone makes mistakes?
Softball :)
 
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Blocking.
I should probably put less people in a scene or just ignore the ones that don't do anything significant.
I agree. If a character doesn't move the story forward should he or she be in the scene?

I have the exact opposite problem in my WIP. Sometimes my character is alone for great lengths of time. It's challenging to write an interesting scene with only one character in it.
 

NRoach

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What's the area in your writing you need to work more on? For me it's spelling. Those damn homonyms piss me off! I had "peaked around the corner" instead of "peeked around the corner" in the first few paragraphs of my WIP. I think little things like that can't be avoided 100% though.

Here's a cool article. I don't feel so bad about confusing homonyms anymore.

http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/01/24/15-famous-thinkers-who-couldnt-spell/

At the risk of looking really pedantic, those are homophones; they sound the same, homonyms are words which are spelled the same.

Personally, I struggle with redundant descriptors, focusing on a particular sentence at the detriment to the others around it.
 
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At the risk of looking really pedantic, those are homophones; they sound the same, homonyms are words which are spelled the same.

Personally, I struggle with redundant descriptors, focusing on a particular sentence at the detriment to the others around it.
Rather look pedantic than foolish, eh?! :) Thanks for the lesson, always cool to learn.

Your weakness is interesting. What do you believe is the cause of that?
 
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Elly_Green

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Editing as I write.

Instead of just getting the words down, I read and reread what I've already written so many times to make sure it sounds right, that sometimes I spend my entire writing time doing that and maybe only end up with one more complete sentence.

I get wrapped up in the editing process far too soon and too compulsively.
 

Ian Nathaniel Cohen

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My biggest ones are:

* Coming up with what happens in between setup and climax - sometimes it's that I can't think of anything to happen, sometimes I have wildly different ideas about how to get from setup to ending.

* Not trusting my judgment on who to listen to when I get contradictory feedback - for example, one person says to add something, one person says to take it out after I've added it, that sort of thing.

* I have trouble resisting the urge to show off how much research I've done, even if I'm putting it in there not only for story context, but because I genuinely think people will find it interesting. I've gotten better at streamlining this stuff, though.
 
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Laiceps

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Editing as I write.

Instead of just getting the words down, I read and reread what I've already written so many times to make sure it sounds right, that sometimes I spend my entire writing time doing that and maybe only end up with one more complete sentence.

I get wrapped up in the editing process far too soon and too compulsively.

I feel you pain. I do this way too much. Although I do like comparing the two pieces afterwards and being able to see such a huge improvement. Like tidying a really messy room- 'Woo I did that!'. It kind of gives me hope for the rest of my crappy draft.

Oh, and also- procrastination. GREAT example of my procrastination right here. Just wondering what it would sound like to say ‘Stop’ with a bloody nose, did some research about broken noses, a few clicks later- ‘if you receive trauma to the nose as a child, you may be left with a permanent dorsal bump’- hmm do I have a bump? Spent 20 minutes going through childhood photos on facebook to see if my nose looked different back then…STOP ME!
And then I come to this site.......
 

WriteMinded

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When a scene includes buildings: cities, towns, villages, forts, castles. Though the setting is clear in my mind, it become lifeless at best, confusing at worst, when I put it to paper. Landscapes are not nearly so difficult.

Also, I am directionally challenged. :(

I'm thinking of outsourcing.
 

Greene_Hesperide1990

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Oh, and also- procrastination. GREAT example of my procrastination right here. Just wondering what it would sound like to say ‘Stop’ with a bloody nose, did some research about broken noses, a few clicks later- ‘if you receive trauma to the nose as a child, you may be left with a permanent dorsal bump’- hmm do I have a bump? Spent 20 minutes going through childhood photos on facebook to see if my nose looked different back then…STOP ME!
And then I come to this site.......

I have a similar weak spot. I wanted to look up how a town in Baltimore looked like for a scene in my MS and I remember oh Michael Phelps is from Baltimore, then I look him up, then the next Olympics, then hours later after browsing I go back to typing.
 
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I have a similar weak spot. I wanted to look up how a town in Baltimore looked like for a scene in my MS and I remember oh Michael Phelps is from Baltimore, then I look him up, then the next Olympics, then hours later after browsing I go back to typing.
I do the same. With me it's online games. That's why many authors advocate writing on a computer not connected to the internet.
 

paddismac

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I'm discovering that my weakness is any descriptions that don't involve my characters.

Just as an off the top of my head example: If I had to describe a tree, it would take me forever (and a lot of editing and rewriting) to come up with anything remotely readable. But if one of my characters climbs that tree, I have no problem describing the ascent and every branch in graphic detail (gotta watch out for that!)

I can't figure out where the disconnect is coming from.
 

Imriaylde

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I have trouble balancing description and dialouge. I'll sometimes get really into describing the scene, but when I get overly excited about moving the story along with dialouge, all of my descriptions fade out. I sometimes have to force myself to write out descriptions, so that the reader will be able to see the image I've got so clearly in my brain :).
 

Greene_Hesperide1990

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I have trouble balancing description and dialouge. I'll sometimes get really into describing the scene, but when I get overly excited about moving the story along with dialouge, all of my descriptions fade out. I sometimes have to force myself to write out descriptions, so that the reader will be able to see the image I've got so clearly in my brain :).

That happens to me too. For me its that I want to describe stuff but I also want to keep the story going too.
 

Imriaylde

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That happens to me too. For me its that I want to describe stuff but I also want to keep the story going too.

And then action scenes...balancing the description of what's going on and the banter between the characters? It's rough, man.

Query letters.

I've yet to write a query letter. I've read a few and I'm terrified of them. Thankfully I know I've got lots of edits to do before I need to worry about that. *sticks head in the sand*
 
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Greene_Hesperide1990

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And then action scenes...balancing the description of what's going on and the banter between the characters? It's rough, man.

I've yet to write a query letter. I've read a few and I'm terrified of them. Thankfully I know I've got lots of edits to do before I need to worry about that. *sticks head in the sand*

Action/fight scenes take me a while to plan out and then write out...multiple times. But yeah, I think I've written four drafts of my query letter so far and still no dice.

I am an adjective addict.

Nothing wrong with descriptive words, I like using lots of them too.
 
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And then action scenes...balancing the description of what's going on and the banter between the characters? It's rough, man.



I've yet to write a query letter. I've read a few and I'm terrified of them. Thankfully I know I've got lots of edits to do before I need to worry about that. *sticks head in the sand*

Good luck with that. One of my form/I guess personal rejections to a query read: The story sounds engaging but we can't take on new writers at this time.
 
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