Writing tics - we all have them!

It’s easy to notice overused words and phrases in other people’s writing, but do you notice them in your own? Yes, I have to admit I read Fifty Shades of Grey, if only to try and understand what all the fuss was about. It’s one of the worst novels I’d read for many reasons, but particularly those irritating repeated phrases. Oh my!

So how, as writers, do we get rid of them? Firstly, re-read your work until you’re sick of the sight of it. It can help to look at your writing in a different way. Print it out if you normally proofread onscreen. Or put it in a different font.

Secondly, have other people point them out. Ask all your beta readers to look out for them. During the publication of Future Perfect, the editor pointed out that my characters were biting their lips on five separate occasions. I’ve now added that expression to the list in my writing book, together with ‘and so’, ‘right,’ ‘sighed’, ‘smiled,’ ‘obviously’ and ‘certainly’. This is where the ‘find’ feature in Word comes into its own. It’s also useful for pruning out all those pesky adverbs: put in ‘ly’ and see how many you’ve used.

Another useful device is the word cloud. By pasting a block of text, this website generates a word cloud that shows you which words feature most often in the text.

http://www.wordle.net

But it’s not only words and phrases. A friend recently pointed out to me that I use a lot of ellipses – she’d been ticked off by her editor for the same thing. Annoyingly, the ‘find’ feature didn’t allow me to search for … but a quick search through my manuscript revealed the awful truth. I use this far too often to indicate pauses in speech and the habit’s getting worse!

So what are your writing tics? 

Why blog about myself as a writer?

For a while I resisted the idea of a blog about myself as a writer. While I enjoy my blog on fascinating females in history, the idea of anything else seemed too self-promotional and, being English, I'm rather apologetic of anything that smacks of pushing myself forward. But in the last few months while Future Perfect has been in the process of being published, I've read many blogs written by other writers and not all of them are saying, "Look at me and buy my book!" Most are, in fact, nurturing a supportive community of writers. Writing can be a solitary occupation and over the last few months I've learned plenty by reading about other writers' experiences of the publishing industry, as well as making some new friends along the way. I've also discovered that blogs can be a valuable way of sharing tips, whether marketing or for writing itself.

As for my own journey into print, it's been one of self-discovery. I thought that writing was a means to an end, the end being publication. I was wrong. Of course the day that I received the e-mail from Elsewhen Press saying that they'd like to publish the novel was a huge thrill. The day I hold the paperback in my hand will be the fulfilment of a lifelong dream. But the greatest joy I've had this year was writing the last novel in the trilogy. There's nothing on earth to beat the adrenaline rush of being so immersed in the writing process that the world disappears around you and your fingers can hardly keep up with the words that are leaping from your mind. And that's my advice to all writers. If you don't love it, don't do it. Writing isn't a means to an end; it is the end.