traincat

Some more writing questions from Tumblr!

What word(s) do you find yourself using a lot?

I'm not sure if there are individual words I have a weakness for, but I definitely feel there are a lot of phrases and descriptions I reuse endlessly. Unfortunately, I have zero ability to retain the knowledge of what those phrases are. If I reuse a phrase while writing, I have no awareness that I've used it before! And then I’ll reread the fic a few days after posting and go 'oh, goddammit, I’ve used that phrase in a million fics, haven’t I?' (If anyone else has noticed specific recurring phrases in my writing, I would be interested and/or mortified to know.)

One phrase I have developed conscious awareness of: I have used the phrase 'There is a pause' 76 times across my fics. At some point I became aware that I used this phrase too much, so I went for 'There's a pause’ instead. I have now used 'There's a pause' 96 times.

I suppose 'said' (or rather 'says', as I usually write in present tense) might count as a word I use a lot? I originally dismissed it as an answer to the question because I consider it a near-invisible word - it’d be like saying I use 'the' a lot - but different writers have very different attitudes to 'said', so the fact that I use it relentlessly is still a marker of my style. You can’t avoid 'the'; you can theoretically avoid 'said’, but I very much don’t. It’s so useful and unobtrusive! (Or at least it’s unobtrusive to me.) I’d say I average one 'says' every hundred words.

I... also average one 'blood', 'pain' or 'scream' every thousand words across all of my fics, now that I check. Whoops. (That's including words containing those letter sequences, like 'bloodied' or 'painful' or 'screaming'. Or... or 'Spain', I suppose, although I don't write a lot about Spain.)

What do you feel sets your writing apart from that of others?

Oh, this is a tricky question! I'd probably say it's the subject matter?

I don't think there's anything stylistically unique about my writing; I do have a particular style, but it's not necessarily something you could pick out of a lineup of similar writers. But the concepts that interest me can be pretty specific and niche, and I often find myself writing for rare pairings and small fandoms. I'll also write for more popular things, but I'm more motivated to write a fic if I don't think the concept has been written already.

In other words, you can find my style anywhere, but there are ships and concepts and fandoms where, if you want to read fanfiction for them, I'm more or less the only option (condolences). Of course, there are a lot of other writers out there who are also pursuing their own niche ideas - that's not unique in itself - but each of us is bringing something unique to the table.

What do you feel is your writing’s biggest flaw?

Impatience, probably! I really enjoy the act of writing, but I also spend the entire process itching to get the story finished so I can share it with the world. This can lead me to go 'great, it's finished, time to post!' as soon as a fic is in a theoretically finished state. Often, though, the fic would benefit from a little more time and thought, from adding a few more scenes, from fleshing out developments a little more. It's too late; I've already posted, and now it'll always gnaw at me that this fic will never be quite as good as it could have been.

It is once again time for a dream roundup!


( Dreams from August to October. )


It didn't occur to me until I looked at all of these together that I've had multiple dreams about bears lately. Perplexing! Bears aren't really something I often have on the mind.