Nathan Bransford - The Forums

As I've been editing, I've realized that I suffer from adjective bulimia. I gorge on everything that looks good. The manuscript gets bloated. So, I throw it all out (up?), and the manuscript feels empty. Then, those adjectives get to looking really tasty again...
Results: malnourished manuscript and really yellow teeth (or maybe that's just all the coffee.)
-vic

Tourette's syndrome.

I run-on a bit. Very few short sentences in my stuff. They feel like bumps in the road.

Scott wrote:I run-on a bit. Very few short sentences in my stuff. They feel like bumps in the road.

Ha! I tend to use short sentences and long paragraphs.

Anorexia. My novels are too too skinny.

Nick wrote:

Scott wrote:I run-on a bit. Very few short sentences in my stuff. They feel like bumps in the road.

Ha! I tend to use short sentences and long paragraphs.

Heh, imagine if we had to edit each other. We'd probably quit. ;)

A herniated disk! I sometimes stick scenes into my novel that don't move the story along. They "bulge" out when I go through and edit...I can instantly tell what doesn't fit and slows down the flow of the story. Ouch!

matildamcc wrote:Anorexia. My novels are too too skinny.

I must agree. At least 2 in the series are way too skinny. So of course the others are bloated. Can I have both anorexia and obesity?

Great topic!

My biggest writing disorder is the slows. By the time I finish my novel, all the technology on the planet will have changed, so I'll have to revise it all over again.

Using BACK, AROUND, and THEN too many times. Thanks to Nathan, who's mentioned www.wordle.net several times, I can paste my whole novel in a text box and find out which words I overuse.

Editorectile dysfunction. I have a completed manuscript but I'm having a difficult time completing my final edit. During the week I am too tired to focus, but I take a pill on the weekend that is *supposed* to give me 36 hours where I can edit like crazy. The trouble is, if I edit for more than four hours, I have to seek help.

Paranoia. I don't trust my characters and suspect they talk about me behind my back instead of getting on with the plot.

Dissociative Identity Disorder coupled with Bipolar II Disorder. Some days, my characters, man. Like last night. Normally the Chief Inspector's a snarky old guy with (I think) a great sense of humor. Last night...ugh. Let's not go there.

bipolarity, mixed with depression, anxiety, and a hefty load of ADD.

A wife and kids who keep interrupting me!

Something suspiciously BDD-like. I revise. Compulsively. What I write is never good enough, and I'll pick it over to infinity.