I thought I'd start a fun new thread where we can tell everyone how rubbish we are! Or rather, perhaps discuss the areas we need to work on, or give each other advice on tricky writingy things.

For instance, one of my biggest faults is knowing when to stop. I don't mean, when to finish a story - but I have a terrible tendency to go into immense detail about everything. There is a reason T&M is over 500,000 words long after four years...and still nowhere near finished! (I am currently agonising over how to pare down the latest instalment so I can get to the end of the thing, as the whole task is daunting me terribly, hence thinking of starting this topic).

Anyone have any suggestions about how to trim things down a bit? o.O and do chime in with your own biggest fault if you want to!

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Someone cooking meat at the den of the fox said, "We do not mention this in front of the mongoose." Sumerian proverb

Outskirts Of The Twenties: Polari

Non-CS fic: Late Back (Good Omens)

I'm the same . I remember going through my university dissertation agonising over which bits to chop out to get below the maximum word limit, whilst most people were trying to get over the minimum word limit. I'm even worse when writing fiction, because I feel that I need to explain every little thing that anyone might possibly wonder about.

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We really must stop eating like this ...

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

http://setinthepast.wordpress.com/

Oh golly yes, the explaining thing! I am a Persistent Explainer - or perhaps it's more that I want to give people as much information as possible so that they can understand why X led to Y...

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Someone cooking meat at the den of the fox said, "We do not mention this in front of the mongoose." Sumerian proverb

Outskirts Of The Twenties: Polari

Non-CS fic: Late Back (Good Omens)

I leave so many loose ends purely because I get bored of story lines!

My biggest fault is getting started. Some ideas are there, I just have to get going. It may help that I enrolled on a creative writing course this morning!

I think my worst fault is probably the opposite of Finn and Alison - I don't explain enough. I assume that the reader will fill in the gaps and create their own world around what I write, and so I end up writing dialogue and the most basic description of what's going on, and nothing else.

I'm not so bad at getting started, but continuing is sometimes a problem. Writing on the CBB cured me of that, because it's a lot harder to just let something slide when people are clamouring for more of it!

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"And I'm sure there was blood in the gutter from somebody's head, or else it was the sunset in a puddle."

If only people would clamour as much as they used to! I don't have quite enough motivation at the moment either (well, time is also a factor) but someone nagging does tend to make me return my attention to whatever I'm neglecting!

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Someone cooking meat at the den of the fox said, "We do not mention this in front of the mongoose." Sumerian proverb

Outskirts Of The Twenties: Polari

Non-CS fic: Late Back (Good Omens)

My problem is that I do a lot of writing in my head. I see pictures and even hear dialogue in my head which I then struggle to replicate in actual writing, which leaves me dissatisfied with what I've actually written such that I end up constantly rewriting some scenes rather than just moving on.

Running out of ideas, so I have to kill everyone off.

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You're scared of mice and spiders, but oh-so-much greater is your fear that one day the two species will cross-breed to form an all-powerful race of mice-spiders, who will immobilize human beings in giant webs in order to steal cheese.

Starting is alright, but the continuing on and keeping it all going and getting to an ending is the awkward bit. The CBB helped there for a while, but in some ways, I wish it hadn't. *cringes over thought of early drabbles*

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Minim's Pad - YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!!
Asexual, aromantic, genderqueer, Pokémon fan, mathematician, tech lover, human.
IT IS SAID THERE IS A SPIRIT IN THE FOREST DON'T SERVE THE DEVIL - Pokémon "Vietnamese" Crystal

Haha, so that's why everyone dies in your drabbles! I thought you just liked the idea of the violence...

Minim, I cringe at some of my early drabbles. The CBB is a good place to get practise!

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"And I'm sure there was blood in the gutter from somebody's head, or else it was the sunset in a puddle."

You do kill them well and creatively though.

Hey, you're making me feel like a newbie!

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Minim's Pad - YEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!!!
Asexual, aromantic, genderqueer, Pokémon fan, mathematician, tech lover, human.
IT IS SAID THERE IS A SPIRIT IN THE FOREST DON'T SERVE THE DEVIL - Pokémon "Vietnamese" Crystal

Haha, sorry! I'm just saying, don't worry too much about the early drabbles. Likelihood is no one will see them anyway if, like mine, they are all buried in the depths of the archives.

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"And I'm sure there was blood in the gutter from somebody's head, or else it was the sunset in a puddle."

Well, obviously there is that also! But, what it boils down to is 'if in doubt kill them'. That's why it took me so long to finish the Marjory crossover, because I knew that dropping them wholesale off a cliff and splattering them on the floor below isn’t what Lorna Hill would have done.

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You're scared of mice and spiders, but oh-so-much greater is your fear that one day the two species will cross-breed to form an all-powerful race of mice-spiders, who will immobilize human beings in giant webs in order to steal cheese.

I find starting hard, as well as seeming interesting enough xD

Too much detail in a small scene setting & using the same words over & over & over again to describe actions. My grammar & use of punctuation is generally rather shaky as well, thanks to being one of the 1980s "We can't teach kids grammar, punctuation & spelling, they might get upset when we correct them!" generation.

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It's time to stop this dreaming, must rejoin the real world
As revealed by orange lights and a smoky atmosphere.
Heathaze, Genesis

I drive myself mad over grammar, syntax, punctuation etc, in a worryingly OCD-ish way . Death before the splitting of an infinitive! I still feel guilty every time I start a sentence with "and" or but" ... er, as I said, worryingly OCD-ish!

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We really must stop eating like this ...

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

http://setinthepast.wordpress.com/

I feel your pain, Finn, as my sin seems to be similar - still writing ND after 9 years and now at 900,500+ words. I have written lots of shorter drabbles, plus stories for competitions and stories for my grandchildren, etc. but ND always drags me back. It's not the immense detail that is my besetting sin, though, but the lengthy conversations. Indeed, most of my writing seems to consist of dialogue - perhaps too much so!

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"It takes a long time to live what you learn." May Sarton

I suffer from those too. I was told as an adult that the main reason such things were discouraged when I was taught at school was to avoid them being used excessively.

I think it's a case of most things are OK in moderation.

I do get irritated when reading our in-house magazine, though, especially when I spot 3 glaring grammatical (and one typing) errors on a single page. I'm thinking of offering my services as a proof-reader, since the one they currently have clearly isn't doing their job properly.

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''He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot