But another thought occurred to me as I cleaned the house the other day.
HABITS:
Take the toilet lid for example. Everyone has a preference whether it should remain up and open for business, or closed. I won't even touch on the subject of the seat!
The open position is common. It's easy to access for those in a hurry and less time consuming for the partaker.
Closed is more formal. It's also like the invisibility cloak of Harry Potter; hiding any nasties staining the inside.
As a female, we mostly look for two things before performing the spin and sit.
1) Is the lid open?
2) Is there at least four squares on the roll.
No one likes being stranded high to dry. It's habit to check.
I check certain things as I write. Like if I've used too many of the same words to start sentences.
Was, were, -ly, -ing, etc. hording space in my lines are another. You know, the usual.
Checking for those as I write became habit for me.
I also have a habit of rocking my chair to think better.
What are your habits?
8 comments:
LOL, great post, Sheri. I have many writing habits.
1) I check for passive voice. And if I can reword to make the sentence active, then I do. But I do leave some passive in.
2) Like you, I check for LY's and repeat words. I do leave the odd LY in, and I do use the odd repeat word gor emphasis.
3) I look for telling. Again, I don't change ALL telling to showing.
4) I check to make sure each character has his/her own voice.
5) I watch out for overused dialgue tags.
Very creative way to look at it. Love it!
I'm the same. -Ly endings are my nemesis. I go back through each chapter and highlight every one, then decide which ones to leave in, which to delete or re-word. Also check (and miss quite often)for sentences starting with the same word. But that's what crit partners are for, right? :)
Brenda~ Thanks for stopping and leaving your comment. You know how pilots have a checklist of things to do before they take off down the runway? Maybe we should create one for ourselves! Well...it's an idea.
Hi Mart~ We writers can be creative! Ha! Thanks for stopping by.
Jenna~ I love my 'ing's and 'ly's, too bad the editors don't. *sigh* Love my crit partners! Thanks for your comment.
I check for the same things that Brenda and Jenna do. Thank heaven for critique parnters because some still slip by me. Great post!
Lisa~ Boy, oh boy do some slip by! No matter how many times we comb through it.
Intersting metaphor!
Lol, Sheri. I have many writing/taking habits, but I try to keep them in check until edits time otherwise I'd go nuts and not get anything done. :)
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