Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Commas! Apparently I was taught in elementary school to use a comma whenever I want to pause... or something weird like that, so now I have to go back after I write a bit and delete the excess commas.

aspiring_x wrote: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

this made me loled.

OCD.

At one point, I had to do a "search and destroy" of pet words just to clean up the manuscript. Also, I fuss too much over how a sentence is phrased.

Ha! I love this question.

Borderline Personality Disorder

I hate writing, but I love being a writer. I feel better when I write...so I refuse to do it. Writing is the main purpose of my life - don't make me do it.

I am reminded of a writing workshop I went to where a lecturer recounted the antics of a particular author (can't remember who) who sounds way too much like me. He used to make his wife lock him in a room with his typewriter with orders not to let him out until he had passed a certain number of pages under the door. He would then yell to be let out, cry, pretend to get sick, all before eventually writing the pages and passing them under the door.

Margo wrote: He used to make his wife lock him in a room with his typewriter with orders not to let him out until he had passed a certain number of pages under the door. He would then yell to be let out, cry, pretend to get sick, all before eventually writing the pages and passing them under the door.

That's not a writing practice. That's kink.

Quill wrote: That's not a writing practice. That's kink.

Um, yeah. I resemble that remark. :)

Writing Infantilism.

I love adverbs. Adjectives. Telling, not showing. Head hopping. Dialogue tags.

There, I said it. Feels good.

I suffer from mania when in the initial writing zone of first draft. My first book was written in 3 or 4 weeks. 500 pages. Manic explosion, people.

And during edits? Let's just say I'm surprised I don't suffer from Trichotillomania. (as wiki would describe it, "hair loss from a patient's repetitive self-pulling of hair")

Writing can also lead to Agoraphobia. :D

Quill wrote:Writing Infantilism.

I love adverbs. Adjectives. Telling, not showing. Head hopping. Dialogue tags.

There, I said it. Feels good.

I'm paging the intervention team. Put the adverbs down; it's not worth it. There are people who love you. I'm recommending an intensive 30 day rehab, with supervised writing only, and daily testing to detect the use of adjectives. The initial detox will be rough, but we'll let you keep the POV hopping until the worst of the withdrawl is over. Then it will be on to a halfway house for hardcore said-bookism addicts, with twice weekly Writers Addicted to Adverbs And Adjectives Anonymous (WAAAAA) meetings. We'll film all of it and sell it to one of those warm fuzzy lifestyle channels on cable and -BAM- Bob's ur uncle! Fame, fortune, memoir deals, Oprah, Larry King Live.

Okay, that was pretty funny.

I can't commit to anything. I start one project and about a quarter of the way through my Muse starts whispering about this other, more shiny idea. And I ALWAYS give in! Why? And so I have many partial manuscripts, but nothing that is truely completed.

And I suffer from Anorexia. My novels could always use a little more fleshing out.

Seriously, if I ever get through my YA novel I am going to have SO much work to do.

wildheart wrote:I can't commit to anything. I start one project and about a quarter of the way through my Muse starts whispering about this other, more shiny idea. And I ALWAYS give in! Why? And so I have many partial manuscripts, but nothing that is truely completed.

this happens to me, but i always put the new ideas aside and focus on the one... scared to death i've picked the wrong one and am wasting a bunch of time on this one project when that other one....
anyway, you should read THE BOOK OF STORY BEGINNINGS by Kristin Kladstrup, that is if you enjoy MG. i'm reading it with my kids who are loving it, but it sort of echoes your writing disorder. :)

Attention Deficit Disorder..

Can't concentrate long enough on the work. Usually last between 30-45 minutes before the urge to do something else kicks in.

aspiring_x wrote:

wildheart wrote:I can't commit to anything. I start one project and about a quarter of the way through my Muse starts whispering about this other, more shiny idea. And I ALWAYS give in! Why? And so I have many partial manuscripts, but nothing that is truely completed.

this happens to me, but i always put the new ideas aside and focus on the one... scared to death i've picked the wrong one and am wasting a bunch of time on this one project when that other one....
anyway, you should read THE BOOK OF STORY BEGINNINGS by Kristin Kladstrup, that is if you enjoy MG. i'm reading it with my kids who are loving it, but it sort of echoes your writing disorder. :)

I've finally started sticking to what I start, but its really hard. Like, right now for instance, I am working on a novella and I REALLY want to work on my YA idea RIGHT NOW. But I am hanging in there. I want to actually truely finish something before I move on....and I totally understand being worried you've chosen the wrong idea! That's what usually makes me give up in the first place!

I enjoy all sorts of fiction. What is the book about?

wildheart wrote:
I enjoy all sorts of fiction. What is the book about?

A little girl and her family move into a mysterious great aunt's old house, and she finds a book called the book of story beginnings... in the first page of the book there's a warning that reads :
"Beware, you writers who write within;
Be mindful of stoires that you begin;
for every story that has a beginning
May have a middle and an end.
Know this, too, before yo write:
Though day must always lead to night,
Not all beginnings make good tales;
some succeed, while others fail.
let this book its judgment lend
Onwhether and how your beginning ends."
And there are several little story beginnings in it, in different ancient handwritings. The little girl reads them, and when she comes to the last one, it's written by the great aunt's brother who mysteriously dissappeared when he was a kid... then the little girl decided to write down one of her story ideas, but the book takes itself over on what happens next.
We aren't all that far into it, but that's how far we are, and my kids adore it. I have to admit, I think it's good too, but I don't think I'll ever outgrow MG.