We all know the pain, frustration, and fear of failure from our own particular writing sins. I can freely admit that I think my biggest writing weakness is plot and story structure. I’ve struggled and worked on these and still am not happy with myself. And in my current WIP, I’m beyond worried that the choices I’ve made doom the novel and like a beached whale, the cumulative effect of those choices and my weaknesses as a writer will crush the story under its own weight.
Write It Sideways has an interesting post on six fiction writing weaknesses and their quick fixes.
Does anyone else feel like this? What do you consider to be your own writing weaknesses? What do you do/have you done to help fix them?
I have a bit of a thing for repeated words, and for overly convoluted scentences.
ReplyDeleteStructurally, I have been known to put together perfectly good plans, and then completely ignore them, dooming everything.
"Was" "that". Forgetting to vary sentence length. Love of commas.
ReplyDeleteMy remedy is a thorough edit. And then a beta reader.
I'm with Theresa, "was" "that" "just". Throw in a complicated plot and unsympathetic heroine and there we are.
ReplyDeleteI tend to use way too many adverbs and my tenses shift. I'm still working on this but it's frustrating.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
I tend to be a chatty cathy but don't travel anywhere, I have to learn to tighten my story and take out what isn't needed. I write like I talk, no breaks or breaths. So many things to think about! Once again another wonderful post!
ReplyDeleteI have always been plagued with circumlocution. I spend a lot of time paring down my prose.
ReplyDeleteMy own weakness is the character's internal struggles. External is fine.
ReplyDeletePicking the right word. Having the reader feel the emotions. Not over using words. Oh, the list can go on. ;)
ReplyDeleteI use a lot of extra words, write like I'd talk. I also procrastinate.
ReplyDeleteOveruse of passive words and strong woman characters reminiscent of Amazons, due to snarky personalities. I'm working on softening them up to at least be believable, not aliens. (Hugs)Indigo
ReplyDeleteDefinitely adverbs. I thinkly I've gotly them underly control nowly though. ;)
ReplyDeleteCurrently, I'm terrified that my novel is going to be 200 thousand words long. :-) So far, I've got 34k, and I've only covered about 5 days' events. There plot covers 3 months! So I'm learning about which scenes are most important to leave in and how to move the plot forward without having to have narration summaries. *headdesk*
ReplyDeleteOverwritiing. I fall in love with my own stuff!
ReplyDeleteTenses, too much description and weird dialogue tags, that's me.
ReplyDeleteEdit, edit, edit.
I tell too much. Working on showing more and being less wordy.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the link to the Sideways. I tend to miss writing essential words like 'a'. And create dangling modifiers.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest writing weakness - definitely sustaining momentum. I know the story I want to tell, but it's getting through the middle that is the hardest part.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm going to check out that article. We all have areas of strength and weakness. The key is knowing what they are and working to better them.
ReplyDeleteWeaknesses?
ReplyDeleteWell, where to start? (unfurling a mile-long scroll) ;-)
The biggest one is POVs: mine tend to run amok all over the place, and when it's not them, it's adverbs.
How do I fix that? Knowing they are there, and running after them with a club...
Great post! I think I might be opposite from you, my plot is usually tight, but I then go and leave characterization out. Also, I suck at dialogue. Thank goodness for rewrites, eh? :o)
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great post. After reading Writing it. Sideways, I actually felt better about myself as a writer.
ReplyDeleteWeaknesses, for me, involve plot. I'm good with character, I'm good with dialog, setting, details, pretty good with sentence structure and word choice. You'd think that be it, right? No. Finding things to give these people to do can be tough...or maybe it's more that I give them TOO many things to do then have a mess of wet spaghetti slipping between my fingers.
Either way, plot strikes me as my main problem.
This
Timely post. I have exposed mine on my blog. Happy scribbling and thanks for sharing the quick fix link. This girl needs it...lol.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, my friend, we ALL have weaknesses. Even the masters have them.
ReplyDeleteI too struggle with plot. I get all tangled up when trying to connect plot lines and timelines. I know the fix is to plot and plan ahead. Which brings up another weakness of mine...*sigh*. Yeah, me and plotting, we don't get along very well. Plotting gets mad because I abandon him the first chance I get.
I overuse 'that', 'just', and the dreaded passive 'was'.
I mess up tenses.
I'm guilty of POV shifts, thus my fix is to write mostly in first person.
I have yet to query either, SJS. None of my manuscripts are polished enough yet. I'm working on it.
We writers are the Works in Progress. :)
Love,
Lola