QUESTION OF THE WEEK
January 5, 2014
What is your worst writing habit?
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| Question of the Week: What is your worst writing habit? photo credit: richardquerrey via photopin cc |
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Sunday, January 5, 2014
13 Question of the Week - What Is Your Worst Writing Habit?
Hey everyone! It’s Clara Kensie, back with a new Question of the Week! Pretty much the only thing writers love as much as writing is talking about writing. So each week here at Adventures in YA Publishing, I post a question for you to answer. The questions cover all topics important to writers: craft, career, writers’ life, reading and books. Together we’ll become better writers by sharing tips and discussing our habits and practices.
My worst writing habit is probably spending too much time writing emails. I hate to send anything to anyone that isn’t perfectly composed and formatted. That’s a good habit to have when emailing my agent and editor. But I spend waaaayyyy too long perfecting emails to my friends. My friends won’t care if I have a typo, or if my sentences and paragraphs aren’t perfectly composed. Sometimes after I’ve sent my friends an email that I’ve spent forever writing, editing, and revising, I realize how much time I’ve just wasted. All that time perfecting an email to my friends, when I could have—should have—dashed it off in seconds, and used the rest of that time for writing my manuscripts. This is a habit I’ve been been trying to change for years now.
What about you? Are you too easily distracted by social media? Do you spend so much time reading that you never write? Do you start plenty of manuscripts but never finish any of them? What is your worst writing habit?
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I tend to post before editing, and this includes and is not limited to twitter, comments, my blog, etc. I am distracted by social media, so this year I've made a resolution to limit it to weekends.
ReplyDeleteMy worst writing habit is second guessing myself. But, I am getting a little better trusting my own voice. :)
ReplyDeleteI have loads of manuscripts that I've completed, revised, had critiqued and then...filed. I need a couple weeks of alone time to pull of them back out and "finish" them and then actually submit them.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful 2014!
I've recently found myself distracted with Supernatural episodes when I should be writing. But can't that be considered research...maybe lol!!!
ReplyDeleteMy worst writing habit is that it isn't a habit for me to write! I am trying mightily to change that this year. Does no habit at all count as a bad habit?
ReplyDeleteDoes all of the above work? I love to write, but am easily distracted, can often be found reading instead of writing, and have a bajillion ideas/manuscripts that I never finish!
ReplyDeleteSocial media is my weakness. It's part of the job, but it can distract from writing. I have to disconnect if I want to get anything done.
ReplyDeleteI'm an over-reviser. My C.P.'s have to slap my hands and say "Enough already."
ReplyDeleteSocial media, definitely. I've been breaking the habit for about a year now but it's so easy to get sucked back in.
ReplyDeleteProcrastinating on submitting things. What good is writing something if nobody sees it? It might as well stay in my head, if I don't try to get it out there.
ReplyDeleteMy worst writing habit is stopping for too long. There are times I need a break from my current MS, so I set it down. But then I leave it for too long. When I get back to it, I forget where I was. Now, I plan to work on it a little each day, and take notes along the way, so I know where I left off each time I write. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of a perfectionist and, though I'm not a plotter per se, I sometimes drift off to plot in my head while staring at a blank screen. Not actually writing. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your honest answers, everyone! A nice variety of bad habits. Let's all try to get rid of them this year!!
ReplyDelete