What bad habits are you guilty of? Input from both readers and writers/developers is very welcome

As a writer: My biggest problem is that I’m a pantser who wants to be a planner. So I waste my time writing an “outline”. The use of quotes was intentional, because, for me, an outline ends up being pieces of scenes crammed into an outline format because I’m incapable of just freaking describing what will happen. As soon as I start describing the scene, the characters take over and I write part of it (or all of it), and alternate between writing the scene and describing it so there’s this mishmash of insanity. It would probably give most of you migraines to try to read my outlines.

The last “outline” I wrote for a fanfic (and this was recently) was 45k words for 25ish chapters. And you know what happened? When I started writing it and using what I had in the outline, I got to chapter 6 and my characters were like, “Yeah, this isn’t what happened…” Which brings me to my next problem as a writer…

My characters have so much control that even trying to make outlines is a waste of time. So, after the above 45k word outline, I ended up ditching about half of it (while my characters laughed at me for not knowing them well enough to realize what I wrote was utter garbage) and have started winging it from that point.

This happens to me repeatedly. I have hundreds of thousands of words worth of scenes written that are just… there. And will likely never be used. :woman_shrugging: Maybe one day I’ll learn, and just go with pantsing it like I did in college and grad school, where I wrote my paper first, then wrote the outline of it afterward. Backwards? Yep, but it’s the only way I could do it.

As a reader/player, my worst habit is that I tend to criticize the works I love most. Part of it is because I get so invested in the world and story that I start analyzing it all, so if things don’t make sense or there are perceived flaws in the storytelling or characterization, I will find them and point them out. And I only do this with stuff I get invested in. If I don’t like something, I have nothing to say about it, because I really couldn’t give less of a damn.

Tied to the above, I also tend not to let things go if there is conflicting information in or about the story, because I’m a stubborn pain in the ass. If you tell me the car in your book is blue, then later say it’s red, I’m going to point it out. If you acknowledge it and say you changed your mind, fine. If you claim you never said it, I will dig up every place you said the opposite and show it to you (without malice of forethought, it’s just an ingrained response for me). The more you deny it, the more I will push, when all that really has to happen is for you to say you decided to change it (or I freaking let it go like a normal human being, but I never realize I’m doing it until after the fact, when I’ve already pissed someone off).

Other bad habit as a reader/player of these games is that I buy games on impulse and either never play them, or I start them, get bored, and never touch them again. I’ve vowed to stop that–and, at least, play the demo before throwing money at a game. Too many times, I just don’t like what I see. Like a romance with no romance, a “character-driven” story that makes me have to code dive to make sure my MC doesn’t die because I missed a skill bump two chapters back because my MC would rather hang out with their team, etc. I’m very character-oriented. That’s what drives me in writing, and what gets me invested when I read/play, so if the game is lacking relatable and decent character interactions, I’m out. It’s probably not fair, but I have never liked plot-driven things with bad characterization, which is the typical combo I see. Not saying writers can’t have good characters if they’re more focused on plot, but it’s rare (from what I’ve seen).

Think those are the worst of my habits for both, not that I don’t have other bad habits!

5 Likes

When writing, I tend to automatically write swear words in appropriate places. I hold back on the forums but I assure you if I were allowed I would be saying some very not appropriate things. For my current WIP, it is set in a british High school, and one would never find a more swear-heavy environment. (Trust me I know, I went to one.) So i worry when I move onto a different setting I may find it hard to root out my deep-seated habits.

1 Like

That’s your problem! Why would you write such a detailed outline? If you ever decide to try outlining again, try some basic bullet points. A single sentence per major plot point. Then you can pants everything other than the super duper important plot points. And even those can be rewritten when you need to

3 Likes

Yeah that’s the fun part, and it’s not work, so people love doing it. You go on something like /r/worldbuilding and it’s one million people with cool ideas and one million people who haven’t written one god damn word of their book lol.

How close are you to finishing? Flip a coin and get one done. You’ve got to finalise something: I know it hurts and it’s horrible and everyone hates doing it, myself included, but you’ve got to remember the acronym ABC:

Always
Be
Cfinishing your projects

I don’t know, find something that excites you about the ending. Enjoy the process of writing an ending. Find a way. It sucks and it hurts and I hate having to do it but a writer has to write their endings.

4 Likes

Yeah that’s the fun part, and it’s not work, so people love doing it. You go on something like /r/worldbuilding and it’s one million people with cool ideas and one million people who haven’t written one god damn word of their book lol.

To be fair, everyone ends up being like that at some point. I think most of us have been scared of the blank page before. I’m scared of the blank page now whenever I look at a new chapter that I have to start outlining, so far. The sheer amount of possibilities is intimidating, and grounding what you conceptualize in your head as grand can oftentimes end up servicing instead as a sobering reminder that you are inexperienced. That can dissuade further attempts.

I don’t know, find something that excites you about the ending. Enjoy the process of writing an ending. Find a way. It sucks and it hurts and I hate having to do it but a writer has to write their endings.

I think looking forward to the fun parts can help get through the slog. My excitement for Hui’s introduction got me through finishing the teashop variation of the scene for Chapter 1 lol.

4 Likes

Believe it or not, that’s what I tried to do! And always end up with this massive nightmare. I think I really never learned how to bullet point things correctly. I mean, I know what’s going to happen in what I write. I just never know how much to include and end up going way overboard.

3 Likes