Dee has confirmed for me what I already suspected...one of my worst writing vice's is backstory. I find it difficult to resist 'filling the reader in' with what I already know.

Anyone willing to share theirs? It might highlight any other unknown problems for me...

Sammy

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Incase of any ambiguity, I don't mean I want you to look at my work - I mean to confess your OWN worst vice, in the hope it will get me thinking about my own writing!!

I'm told, and I believe it, that my worst writing vice is constructing - there's no other word - sentences which, although grammatically correct, and capable of doing the job (which in my case is often quite a complicated, even elaborate, job) tend to curl themselves up into a coil and then uncurl themselves towards the end in such a way that inattentive readers - and let's face it, most of us are inattentive readers at some point in any novel, however great, or at least well written - finds that they've got confused, and lost sight of where they started, let alone where they at least hope they'll finish.

Emma

That's a good one, Emma ;-)

I'm not sure what my worst writing vice is; I've got so many. But as I'm usually happily unaware of my adverb abuse etc., I'd have to say the most annoying one is my inability to get from A to B without explaining how it happens. I've never been any good at jumping from one scene to another. Not only is it anxiety-inducing, I'm pretty sure it makes for poor reading as well. Hinders the flow and all that.

Sammy, it's the backstory dump problem for me too.
I'm reading a Margaret Forster book at the moment and I realised last night I'd just been reading pages of backstory , which somehow had effortlessly been carried off. Wish I could do that....

I think mine might be being obscure. I get frustrated when I read prose that tend to over-explain everything and leave nothing to the imagination, and I find I overcompensate when I'm writing by being too vague. I find it difficult, when I've got characters and a plot that I know so well swimming around in my head, to get the level exactly right.

Myrtle

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p.s. Emma - nice sentence. It gave me a slight headache just above my left eyebrow but it made perfect sense!

Yes, adverbs, I'd forgotten those. I really strive to stop my characters '......ily' doing something.

Still recovering from Emma's sentence!

I get frustrated when I read prose that tend to over-explain everything and leave nothing to the imagination, and I find I overcompensate when I'm writing by being too vague.

Yes, that's another vice of mine. And when I think I've got it so obvious it's bordering on the clunky, people still say, 'I didn't get it'. In some ways I think we're the worst-qualified to judge our own work.

Emma

Adverbs are my thing too, she said, glumly. Caroline, what Margaret Forster book were you reading, she asked, curiously.

Mine too is apparently over-elaborate syntax. And the words 'turned' 'then' and 'suddenly' and eye-action (she met his eyes, his eyes were filled with etc), which I have now learned to prune during rewriting.

I also need to learn to write more words - I tend to stick to barebones, I'm trying to learn to flesh out, allow the incidental that adds depth. I read people say 'I realised it was 220,000 words long and I needed to lose 60,000' and I can only slump with hopeless envy. (And now anyone who ever said that wants to punch me, but it's true, I do.)

Andrea

Georges Simenon worked with a 2,000 word vocabulary, yet his books are wonders of elegance, perception, clarity and complexity.

Pete

Jem
The latest paperback, which is called 'Is there anything you want?'. Bit of a crap title, but an incredibly satisfying read, as I think, her books always are.

Good thread.

Mine are: procrastination, perfectionism (i.e. editing too much during the writing process) and maybe not considering plot enough (I focus much more on characters).

Cath

Yep. procrastination, perfectionism, too many "thens" and "justs" and "only" and "nearly" and "almost", editing too many times and often going back to a sentence as it was in the first place.

Seriously suffer from can't-throw-anything-away-itis which means old paper drafts severely hamper flow of air in flat, not to mention a computer hard disc groaning under the weight of 20 nearly identical drafts of everything written.

However, am very pleased to have recovered (almost) from clausitis ie clauses on top of each other, and longworditis, (nearly) just to prove how clever I am to know so many obscure words.

The real problem is don't seem to be able to get rid of pigheaditis though - that strange infection that makes me believe there is a niche in the writing world just around the corner, waiting to welcome me in. But then I write a lot of fantasy anyway.

'suddenly' is a vice of mine, and 'look/looking/looked', also 'then'. I think they're often stage directions, as it were - instructions to the reader of how how to read it - and when I notice (which probably isn't often enough), try to work out if they're essential, or I could convey the same thing another.

Oh dear, that sentence is nearly as bad. That definitely is my worst vice. The others, comparatively speaking, are pecadillos.

Emma

Mine is probably being too indecisive. I change my mind a lot about tiny details. But that's how I am in life too so it makes sense it would be how I'd write! Also, I'm another one guilty of editing as I go along, rather than getting a complete draft done and then rewriting.

L