Friday, August 20, 2021

Habits in Your Writing

It’s another great topic for our monthly Round Robin group blog. Do you have any character habits or favorite words that always crop up in your writing?

I’m guessing many writers give their characters favorite habits or use of words. I know I do because I find them when I edit and realize that I’ve used something similar in subsequent paragraphs. The habits are used to fill space or accent the speech or scene. That’s what they’re supposed to do, but often they tell the reader what’s happening and how the character is reacting when I should be showing. Often when I edit these repetitive habits get deleted.

When I started to write this post, I thought it would be easy, but knowing I have words or habits that frequently crop up in my writing is one thing. Trying to remember what they are is totally different.

Some of these might be:

he ran his fingers through his hair. Can be ‘she’ as well. Definitely adds nothing to the plot.

yanked the door open. Might be okay depending on the rest of the scene.

tears choked in her throat. Not sure about this one but it will probably be cut.

brimmed with tears. And variations on this one such as streamed down her cheeks.

Their gaze locked…

Favorite words are much the same. They often end up getting chopped.

Ohhh, usually said by the heroine. That works for a lot of scenes to demonstrate multiple emotions.

Oh, God. Again, usually said by the heroine and can work for various scenes and emotions

Here’s a line from the book I’m presently editing. It includes two of the above habits.

Susan ran her fingers through her hair, tears streamed down her cheeks. (Yes, I'm editing it.)

I’m curious what other writers have said.

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com

Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/

Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2ow

Fiona McGier http://www.fionamcgier.com/

Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog

Judith Copek https://lynx-sis-blogspot.com

Rhobin Courtright http://www.rhobincourtright.com

13 comments:

  1. Beverly, I agree it is difficult to examine our own novels.

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    1. You're so right. The post was different from editing my words.

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  2. Thoughtful post, Beverley. Synchronicity: in the book I am currently writing, I have an old woman with tears pouring down her face.
    :)
    Bob

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    1. Thanks, Bob. Sounds like another interesting book.

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  3. You're right about remembering what your personal favorite words or character habits are can be difficult. Awareness helps, but usually it's the editing where I catch mine. Even then, I sometimes don't noticed it until re-reading the published word.

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    1. Thanks, Rhobin. You've expressed the challenge of remembering the words and habits really well.

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  4. Tedious though it is, I read what I think is my final draft aloud and am usually appalled at the number of useless words I find after I thought I'd weeded them out.

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    1. Good point and several authors mentioned reading the story out loud.

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  5. Your comment about telling vs showing when using habits is spot on. It's just too easy to tell the reader the character is weeping or running their fingers through their hair instead of showing us the tracks the tears made in the dust from the barn she was sweeping or the tufts of sweaty hair sticking up when he ran a disgusted hand over his head. Good point.

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    1. Thanks, Skye. Amnd I loved how you rewwrote the habits to make them more interesting and more showing than telling.

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  6. Hi Bev, It's confession time for most of us in the Round Robin group. Like you, I found it hard to remember all the repeating words I use, but they certainly exist. Anne

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    1. Thanks, Anne. Yes it sounded like an easy topic until I started thinking about it.

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  7. I usually depend on my editors to find and suggest changes. In the past, I've over-used conversation tags. Now I've all but eliminated them. I've also become more aware when I'm over-using certain words. But the change that really surprised me was when an editor told me that foreshadowing "just isn't used in romance anymore." Really? Who made up that rule, so I can "discuss" this with them. Especially in a romantic suspense story, I still like a bit of foreshadowing. I've had reviewers fault my stories when they "had no idea who the villain was, because there weren't any hints." Can't please anyone, apparently--so just please yourself, and hope readers agree with you!

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