I could design a drinking game solely around my writing. And we’d all be drunk by the end of the first page.
I haven’t been doing nearly as much writing lately, but I’ve been rereading a lot of what I’ve written in the past few months. The writing itself is not all that bad. Or at least some of it is decent.
The repetition?
HOLY SWEET CHRISTMAS, BATMAN, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?
I took the Kate & Michael project and copied and pasted the first line from the beginning of every scene written so far into a text file and then read it straight through. It was ridiculous.
And now what I really want to do is a bunch of searches through the entire document looking for certain key words just to see how much I actually repeat myself beyond the first line of each scene. I’m sure the results would be terrifying.
Every time someone…
…looks or glances up (typically from a computer or the TV)
…looks or glances up confused, surprised, or with a start
…walks into a room
…the doorbell “chimes” (someone usually looks up…from their computer…when this happens)
…collapses, slouches, or slumps in their seat
…pinches the bridge of their nose
…rolls their eyes
…shakes their head
…sighs (tiredly, frustrated, defeated)
…rolls their eyes while shaking their head and sighing
…pauses or freezes (mid-stride, walking into a room, looking or glancing up)
…massages their temple
…rubs their forehead
…drums their fingers absently
…props their head in their hand
…checks their phone (usually after it “buzzes” with a text message)
…eyes another person: levelly, closely, curiously, suspiciously, critically, skeptically, or concerned
And that’s probably not a complete list. That’s just some of the most common actions I consistently…obsessively…repeat all over the place in my writing. It’s like the blatant abuse of commas. It has to be some sort of psychosis.
—
 |
Another Me Sister Hazel |