Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [breaking-bad-writing-habits]

This tag should be used for questions that are searching for common techniques to combat bad writing habits that might hinder your progress.

This tag should be used for questions that are searching for common techniques to combat bad writing habits that might hinder your progress.

Examples include problems with different tenses, using certain words too often or procrastinating the editing process.

9 questions
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Restarting a Novel

In 2015 I wrote the first two thirds of a novel (as part of NaNoWriMo). I stopped at that point because I had written the 50,000 words required for the 'competition' but the story is not yet complete. I have an outline in my head of how it pans out…
robertcday
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5 answers

What does "juvenile tone" mean?

I often hear the word thrown around, but I don't have any idea of what it is, or how can it be avoided. So, what does "juvenile tone" mean and how can I prevent it?
Mephistopheles
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4
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3 answers

How to avoid slipping into the wrong tense?

In one of the stories I'm writing at the moment, when the narrator is in the scene, the story is in present tense (which is painful, but so far I like the result). The rest is in the much easier to deal with, and generally superior, narrative past…
Nero gris
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1 answer

Flashback vs long past tense exposition vs multiple frames of reference in the same scene

I'm giving my newest story a bit of break before I go back and fix the tense issue in it, and going back to the story I started last April. I am unfortunate enough to have about 180k words of novel (still unfinished) sitting on my HDD (plus multiple…
Nero gris
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4
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How to avoid being too wordy

How do I avoid being wordy? Do you know of any exercises or something similar to help with that? I feel, when reading my own writing, that I use "expensive" language, as we say in Portuguese, way too often. I don't seem to be able to use colloquial…
shieldedtulip
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1 answer

How to avoid repetition of rhymes in poetry, yet maintain the rhythm?

I do very well in writing short stories but when it comes to poetry I'm faced with the problem of repeating the same rhymes. I always want my poems to have a particular sequence of rhythm, but while trying to get a new rhythm for a new line I end up…
Osaro Adade
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Am I using too many commas?

I feel like I'm using too many commas. I'm a pretty young writer and I didn't exactly pay attention in English class very often (I was too busy reading a shit load of books and passing with C+'s) and well now that I look back on it, I really should…
Seann
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What makes bad science fiction?

The obvious way to understand quality is to examine what is successful. On the other hand, it is often more helpful to examine what has failed. Are there any tropes generally considered to make bad science fiction? Some things that pretty much…
inappropriateCode
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How can I understand characters whose worldview is alien to my own?

I feel I've got a huge obstacle, whenever I'm pretending" to be a character and trying to make out how he/she would react. I feel strongly that the mentality of the creator is reflected in his work. And that's a problem when trying to write…
Mephistopheles
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