What are your writing "tics"? What are the things you catch yourself doing a lot?

Realized I have a weird tendency to have my characters tilt their heads whenever they're confused by something. They'll mix it up, but I went on a Control+F spree of a bunch of my fics and found that characters tilt their head twice a chapter on average.

Some chapters are longer than others and they're spaced out, so it isn't as big a deal as I make it, but it feels like it's my personal Said Bookism, or Stephenie Meyer's use of "chagrin". You all notice anything like that in your own writing?

Edited by Rytex on Apr 26th 2021 at 3:05:55 AM

I think I have this sort of thing where I try to write in a long-winded, elaborate, or overly-descriptive way to avoid...trying to make it sound like a "typical" fanfic, where the descriptions are too short and bare.

In terms of minor things, I tend to have characters shake their heads a lot.

In terms of major things, I tend to right stories that are dialogue-heavy and description-light.

Parabombing. It's because I feel obliged to give context on everything.

@fredhot16, What is a typical fanfic in terms of style? I feel it ranges from being overly verbose and flowery to being barebones and sparse.

I suppose...it's amateurish stuff. It's stuff that doesn't say enough, goes for basic descriptions, just stating things without art or craft or flourishes. I'd try to describe it but it's half to three in the morning so I'm afraid that I can't say more then that.

To be fair, that is a trope.

Yes, I know it's a trope. Matter of fact, stumbling across that trope page was what made me realize I was doing this a lot lately.

oooh - personally, i find myself using dashes way too much, both in my writing and just when i type, 'cause i tend to go on side tangents and find that an easy way to break up my thoughts. i'm also trying to get better at this now that i've become conscious of it, but i also start paragraphs with characters' names a bit too much - i've been trying to shake it up some, but i feel my writing style's still kinda... like y'all've said, too short and bare XP

on the flip side, i think being aware of that has also made me start to worry too much - i find myself toiling over if i'm using a character's name too much in, like, every fic i write, when i doubt it's anything a reader would really notice XD

I've noticed that I tend to start fics with lines of dialouge.

For some reason, I have the tendency to split dialogues, so whenever someone says anything, it will go something like:

"Blah blah blah," Alice said, [some more descriptive text], "Blah blah blah."

This might be an old habit from my RPF days—since you have to wait for the other poster to receive a response to a conversation, you try to get as much out in one post as possible. So they never speak in one sentence, but multiple, and they are split into several paragraphs.

Edited by Adept on Jun 1st 2021 at 8:35:51 PM

I find that I resort to using dialogue to start paragraphs and use way, way too many ellipses or dashes. It's something I should probably stop doing...

I use dashes a lot, and my stories tend to end up more dialogue-heavy than I intend.

I tend to start chapters with some narration to set the scene, then "zooming in" on what the characters are doing right now.

SaidBookisms. Dear God SaidBookisms. If one of my works had a Drinking Game subpage, you could probably expect one of the bullet points to be "Take a shot for every Said Bookism."

Also, I've noticed I insert "Anyway" or "In other news" into my writing whenever I change the topic, especially in first-person.

Not quite sure if that counts as a Said Bookism, but I tend to use adverbs a lot when characters speak (but usually no Tom Swifty). I try to remove some of them when editing, but I still have a lot of characters saying things drily, quizzically, gently, angrily, etc, and occasionally in a puzzled tone (because apparently "puzzledly" is not a word). Oh and some vanilla Said Bookisms as well, of course, though I try to limit myself to characters asking, demanding, shouting, crying or occasionally remarking.

I'm also guilty of the occasional Quizzical Tilt as well and I noticed that there seem to be a at least one shiver going down a spine in any fic I write.

And I do go a lot for realistic dialogue, so my characters can... hesitate... or rephrase themselves... or they, I mean, you get the point, when they speak.

Edited by C105 on Sep 15th 2023 at 3:10:07 PM

My characters turn around, or turn their heads, or turn to look at something, far too much.

Part of the reason is that I tend to naturally write very "talking heads" style, my characters just kind of saying things, and then I try to add little actions to make them feel more physical. But a lot of those actions tend to be a bit empty, or repetitive.

I'm good at character voices, but struggle with breaking up the dialogue in interesting ways.

Edited by Silphanis on Sep 27th 2023 at 12:27:32 PM