CRUTCHES AND FALLBACKS

            The other day I got an e-mail from my publisher to give her a call. I did, and she said she’d gone through Spanish Gold to format it for a September release. In the process, despite already having done the major edits and just now waiting a final proof read, she noticed something that she thinks needs to be fixed.

            We discussed the issue and I agreed. It’s a crutch I fall back on, something I unconsciously do, that despite all, and the editing we all did, it took a fifth or so set of eyes to see it in the “clean” edit. It’s something that jumped out to her after everyone else was so close to it, they couldn’t see the forest through the trees.

            I’m not going to say what it is because I don’t want every potential reader looking for something that won’t be there when it finally gets to print.

            I’ve corrected countless bad habits over the years. Despite all, I still fit into a comfortable writing pattern, and after the hundreds of odd quirks I’ve corrected over the years, I haven’t ironed out all of them. I probably never will.

WE ALL DO IT

            No matter your experience, you’re going to fall into patterns and have certain crutches and fall backs you use to get out of situations you find yourself in when you’re writing. It’s only natural. It’s, of course, far worse when you’re first starting out. Then again, you haven’t developed your chops yet, so some of these quirks you haven’t had enough experience to learn yet. On the other side, you may have learned some of these things to correct other errors and got to use them a bit too much.

CORRECTING THEM

            Many of these repetitious quibbles, such as the same dialogue tags, using the same phrases over and over again, using the same noun-verb combinations, misspelling the same words or using them in the wrong context are all developed as you come up with your bursts of writing inspiration. The better you get, the more honed your chops become, the more natural you are at self-correcting as you write.

            However…

            There’s nothing that squelches creativity than bogging down to think of every nuance of writing just to make each individual sentence and paragraph perfect right out of the gate.

            Call it verbal diarrhea – just blurt it out and fix it later.

            The trick is to get better enough so that when you self-edit and then let others edit, there’s less work to do.

NOBODY LIKES EXTREMES

            I’ve mentioned this a few times here at Fred Central, but I’ve known of a few writers who are extremely slow at writing because they ponder over every word, every sentence and every paragraph before they ever commit it to paper (or electronics). To me, that would squelch all the creativity right out of me.

            Like I’m sitting here at my desk blurting out this piece right now. It’s just flowing and I’m trying to self-edit as I write it. I’m only going to go through it once, probably Tuesday right before I post it. Maybe I’ll re-look at it Sunday just for kicks. That’s it. The reason is that I’ve been doing this a long time. Also, I’m not going to go to extremes and pick over every word and run it through the Chicago Manual of Style, or the AP Manual. I’d never get anything done.

            The same for your stories. You need to learn your chops, so you have fewer crutches and fall backs. Face it, you’re going to have some.

            Don’t go to extremes to avoid crutches and fallbacks. Just learn from them and if you can, avoid them in the future as you work at it.

Don’t squelch your creativity just to squelch a habit. If you can minimize it, do so, but not at the expense of losing your spark. That’s what editing is for.

BEING AWARE

            Most of us are not even aware of our crutches and fallbacks initially, until an editor or beta reader or critiquer points them out to us. It’s then that we can act on them by slowly incorporating the fix into our prose. Learn from it, but don’t make it a psychological phobia.

            The more you write, the better you’ll be at avoiding crutches and fallbacks.

SUMMARY

            As you’ll notice, I didn’t list a lot of examples. The reason is that this isn’t an instruction guide. Why? There are way too many crutches and fallbacks in writing to list. It would go way beyond the scope of this article. Let critiquers, editors, and beta readers tell you what you’re doing over and over again. THAT will let you INDIVIDUALLY know what your crutches and fallbacks are.

            Happy writing!