"nothing can permanently please, which does not contain in itself the reason why it is so, and not otherwise."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria (1817)
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
What's pleasing in prose?
Writing Bad Habits
Interesting list of counterproductive habits for writing, by Dianna Booher
* Waiting for inspiration rather than approaching the task like any other
* Waiting until you're under pressure from a deadline
* Interrupting yourself from the task to check email way too frequently
* Starting to write before you've collected all the necessary information you'll need to put in that document
* Writing before thinking
* Starting to draft before you've even identified your key points
* Starting to draft before you've determined what you want the reader to do
* Starting over continually, trying to "get it right" the first time
* Trying to write in "bits and spurts" (15 minutes here and 30 minutes there)
* Allowing other people to interrupt you while writing
* Writing when you're angry or otherwise upset
* Editing and rewriting sentence by sentence as you go rather than after you finish a draft
* Checking a thesaurus to find and use complex words for simple ideas
* Trying to string together long, complex sentences
* Failing to allow a cool-off period before you proofread
* Sending out a document without first editing it or proofreading it
* Waiting for inspiration rather than approaching the task like any other
* Waiting until you're under pressure from a deadline
* Interrupting yourself from the task to check email way too frequently
* Starting to write before you've collected all the necessary information you'll need to put in that document
* Writing before thinking
* Starting to draft before you've even identified your key points
* Starting to draft before you've determined what you want the reader to do
* Starting over continually, trying to "get it right" the first time
* Trying to write in "bits and spurts" (15 minutes here and 30 minutes there)
* Allowing other people to interrupt you while writing
* Writing when you're angry or otherwise upset
* Editing and rewriting sentence by sentence as you go rather than after you finish a draft
* Checking a thesaurus to find and use complex words for simple ideas
* Trying to string together long, complex sentences
* Failing to allow a cool-off period before you proofread
* Sending out a document without first editing it or proofreading it
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