Who wants a cookie?







*ahem* All right, in all seriousness. Does your writing style contain any facets you can't stand but keep resurfacing anyway, time and time again? Do some constructions become the bane of your existence as they block you from writing because their existence on the page is that implacable?

One of my banes, for instance, is the way I begin sentences. Permutations of "It is" or "There are" are driving me close to the point of tears for the following reasons.

One: They shift the action of the sentence into a statement of being. The sentence then loses energy and becomes static. Even if that sentence contains a dynamic change, its two senses war with each other and annihilate whatever beauty it might have had.

Two: Most of the time, they lack antecedents -- look at the definition of a pronoun: it's meant to replace a noun previously specified. College writing classes have awakened my grammar Nazi and now he won't let me write a first draft ;_;

Three: 9 out of 10 sentences that cross my mind begin with those words. It -- at-tta! right there! -- I want variety in my writing, but consciously wishing for variety only contrives it even more. Is it better (oh no, that's no good (and look at that! This shit's recursive)) for me to accept my simple, declarative style and get it over with or can I find a way to work something else out?

I also have a tendency to insert additional words: Look out for "seems", "just", "basically", and other words of their ilk. To me (and feel free to differ), short sentences are powerful -- though I love using dashes -- Five-line, six-line monsters are fine every now and then but they become tiresome to read after a few pages; people get to fretting in their seats and wonder, "Does this sentence have an end?" but not even the punctuation within the quotation marks can alleviate their anxiety, that being a technicality of the vulgar language.

All right. Long sentences can be fun. Just make sure they're in character. Too bad Haraan doesn't seem the type to indulge in them.

I definitely need to step out and try different approaches to writing -- different characters, different POVs, different tenses. Grinding along with one single voice can get irritating and I wonder when I'll learn to try new things?