What's Your Writing Kryptonite?

If truth serum were poured into the collective margarita glasses of all writers, I think we'd quickly learn that there is some aspect of the craft that vexes each and every one of us.  Be it an easy fix, like an unhealthy addiction to adverbs.  Or slightly(see what I did there?) more complex issues with plotting, themes, etc.  We all have the ONE thing.

My kryptonite?  Onomatopoeia ... or rather the lack there of.  I might be the worst phonetic speller in the known universe.  And by worst I mean I do it all the time.  I do many things by ear and tone that most would consider to be a blessing, like sing and play musical instruments.  Unfortunately, I also spell by ear.  Not a big thing, but a REALLY freaking annoying thing.  

That's not to say I do all of the other writing things well, I just think spelling is one of my greatest foes.  What's your thing?  Do you rip your dialog straight from bad soap operas?  Does your computer screen have more depth than your characters?  Let's vent!  :-)

  

~EJW~

23 comments:

  1. My writing kryptonite is searching for the correct word to use instead of a bunch of smaller words.

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  2. World building seems to be my nemesis. It's a big ol' meteorite of kryptonite sitting right in the middle of my stories. I'm working on it. :(

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  3. I think I have too many kryptonites to list! :)

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  4. Time. It's always running away from me ... and not because I'm playing solitaire.

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  5. I'm a bare bones rough drafter, so adding in more description is a struggle for me, also. And I fear I keep using the same words over and over again. How many different hand gestures can a character really make, though?

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  6. Oh, yes. I have what I calle the "dead zone" What word best fits here.

    After years of pounding my head on the wall--or desk, what I've found best works is--just leave a blank. You'd be amazed at what happens, when you, after even a day or many go by, you read the passage and BLOP! The word just appears magically in your numb little skull.

    Happy Writing!

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  7. Adding enough description for me too. Though reading a book with great description helps. I would have added more things, but what would be left save a few prepositions lol.

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  8. Getting anything finished. Because I don't plot, I run out of steam, and instead of going back and fixing it, I shelve it and start something else. A teacher once wrote on a report card of mine back in Grade 2: " Jenny has difficultly with focus." Guess what, Mrs Jordan? Some things never change!

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  9. Action eludes me. I like to stay in my characters' heads and ruminate. It's hard for me to stay "in the moment" with my characters.

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  10. Sometimes I need to slow down my writing. I kind of assume the reader knows things because (of course) I know everything....whoops.

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  11. Mine is the word "looked". I did a word cloud of my manuscript to see (or LOOK) what words were overused. Yep, looked was a biggie!
    KAPOW!

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  12. I have a comma fetish which leads to run on sentences... And yeah... I am sometimes too true to my deep PoV--and so I use a lot of 'seemed' and 'looked' to give attributions to other characters--I TRY when i rewrite to change that to what it looked like, but my characters tend to be interpreters rather than describers, so that can feel out of character...

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  13. Egad. I don't have room to list them. But my biggest one is the WAS word. Oh how I love that word. *sigh*

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  14. My most annoying one is re-starting when I think something isn't quite right -- resulting in many many beginnings of the same piece: a logistical and creative nightmare believe me. I'm with Robyn: *sigh*

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  15. Awesome post! Sadly, too many subplots are my nemesis. That, and making every scene move the plot forward. But I'm working on it. :)

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  16. I love this post! Especially the Super Scribe strip. I'd say my particular poison is character building. I have a tendency to make my characters to ideal. I WANT my characters to be exemplary, paragons of humanity, but that isn't always what's best for the character or the story. Before I learned this, I almost always wrote perfect characters (no flaws, few mistakes, etc.). Now I've learned I need to let my characters be flawed, but it's hard for me to do.

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  17. I love the Super Scribe strip, perfect! My kryptonite is adding enough description. It's something I really need to work on, and it is a definite weakness.

    Also, I use the words "just" and "really" WAY too much. I have to slap myself on the hand every time I find one of those words sneaking in to my sentences.

    Great post! :)

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  18. I'm horrible with certain "go to" words: just, looked, was, etc... they slip in and destroy my hard work. I wish I could simply write it the right way the first time. But first drafts are poop and so all is well.

    Oh, and endings! I have a horrible time writing decent endings that aren't cheesy. It takes me twice as long to write them than the rest of the book. They just about do me in.

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  19. Lack of confidence is big on my list. I rarely send things out because I doubt they are "finished". I am a nit-picker and my own worst enemy when it comes to corrections. I could revise and revise and revise...

    Also, I think my vocabulary has decreased the past 10 years. Since I've been living overseas and another language is my main source of communication, the English words seem harder to come by. I know it is strange but true. I have even resorted to using a thesaurus because at times I can't think of the exact word I want.

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“Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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