What type of writing quirks do you guys have?

[Ian_Snow]

I have a bizarre number of climactic basketball scenes for someone who doesn't really care about the sport all that much beyond a pickup game here and there.

 

[nice90sguy]

I used nest parentheses (sometimes (but not always))

 

[TheLobster]

I used nest parentheses (sometimes (but not always))

I heard there are specialists who can treat such lisp.

 

[MrPixel]

Second, a reader pointed out that “coffee is love.” Every time coffee is served in one of my stories, it indicates at LEAST close friendship and usually love between the characters.

Huh. Caught me. I do that, too. [Strokes his chin.]

I write poly situations. In a coming-soon installment of one series, coffee is so important that they go in together to design and own a coffee shop, "Cheekies", where the baristas wear very short skirts, sans culottes. In another series, gathering around the kitchen table either for breakfast or post-party afterglow always has a pot going, with lots of teasing as one of the (naked) characters pours for everyone. One FMC has to have her tea, though.

 

[AG31]

That's a good point about the coffee.

OtterlyMindBlowing might not see this if you don't quote them or mention them with a @.

 

[bashfull]

I usually need a "muse", which I have not had in quite some time.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I often use exact locations. For example, for Esther Smith's Confessions I found the now gone (1994) house at 5135 Kensington Avenue in St. Louis.

Kensington Avenue

It doesn't look anything like the wooden structure that MGM built on the back lot at Culver City, CA.

Culver City house

 

[gunhilltrain]

I usually need a "muse", which I have not had in quite some time.

Your "muse" is actually a part of your own psyche. How do you tap into it? That's a big topic in itself.

 

[Abbafan]

My quirk is that i delete everything I write instead of submitting it. I've only gotten as far as copying a story onto the submission page, but I don't push the button.

 

[RetroFan]

If using a specific date in the past, the day has to be the same day on which the actual date fell.

For example I wrote two different Halloween stories where the main action takes place on 31st October, one (Cindy's Close Encounter) in 1959 and the other (Bloody Halloween First Time) in 1999. Halloween night in these two years fell on Saturday and Sunday respectively, so I had to set my stories on those days, I just can't lake liberties and use a different day. Another example was a Christmas story I wrote in 2018 called 'The Unsuitable Girlfriends'. It had a contemporary setting, but in 2018 December 25th was on a Tuesday. I really needed Christmas to fall as part of a long weekend to make the plot work, so simply moved the story back a year so it was 2017, when Christmas Day fell on a Monday. Same thing with Easter, which fell very late in April 1962, the same year 'The Lost Hours With Annabelle' was set. Easter had to be the same dates as it really was back in '62.

While there aren't that many movies etc. that use an Easter setting as part of their plot (I'm never sure why on that one) I don't think even Blumhouse or Lifetime worry about such details with their respective Halloween and Christmas movies.

 

[gunhilltrain]

My quirk is that i delete everything I write instead of submitting it. I've only gotten as far as copying a story onto the submission page, but I don't push the button.

View attachment 2358830

If I waited until I had a masterpiece, I'd never push the button either. Not everything I've got here (127 submissions) is great, but so what? I'd never learn anything if I didn't put it out there to be read. Sometimes even my critics are right.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I used nest parentheses (sometimes (but not always))

Shouldn't it use brackets? (sometimes [but not always])?

 

[Whanmore]

I'm always describing my female characters' Hair and eyes. I sometimes have to tone it down and describe the rest of her on my edits. I also forget to describe the men because .. u know.. guys are ugly lol

 

[shabuindy]

I haven't written much fiction. But in both fiction, non-fiction and in text conversations, I absolutely adore alliteration.

My mania drives deeply within my mind.

Usually I'll sprinkle this into stories trying not to be too twee. But it makes me smile and delivers a small drop of dopamine to my process. (I just smiled)

Using pronouns over names to the point that I have to parse my own writing to make sure the subject is clear.

I've avoided writing dialog and would rather make it a part of the narrative. He said he wanted to spank me instead of "I want to spank you.". I think that is caused in part by my lack of confidence.

I anticipate feedback and make edits to answer unasked questions.

In the four stories I've posted so far, I don't stray too far from limiting descriptions to physical attributes. I've been trying to create vague shapes to allow the reader to imprint themselves on the character of their choice. My hope is that readers can easily place themselves into the narrative because that is what I do when I masturbate to porn.

My current pending story is very close to actual events in my life, and I'll be doing a more thorough job of character work, though I couldn't call it creating a character. It has been more like tracing a character since I'm presenting altered versions of actual folks.