Nathan Bransford - The Forums

I have a big problem with sentences that just keep on going; I like semicolons way too much, and even though it's a good approximation of how people really talk, it's a good idea--according to some--to not use too many sentence variations at once (such as semicolons, hyphens, parentheses, and so on.)

I used to have the problem of starting all my dialogue with "well", but it turns out it's just because it's how I talk; once I stopped having my characters talk like me, the problem went away.

I overuse the word "slowly." I don't often describe the speed at which something is being done if it's at normal or quick speed, but I definitely put in "slowly" if it's being done "slowly."