Weird Writing Things

If you've been following me for any extended period of time, you know that I'm a weird kind of dude. I noticed yesterday, whilst finishing the latest chapter of So You Wanna Kill An Alicorn?, that I have some weird tendencies when writing. I thought I'd share some of them.

1) I needlessly rewrite certain lines.

What I mean by that is I will occasionally write something, delete it, then write something extremely similar. The differences are incredibly small and make no real difference. Here's an example.

“Ah! Fix this now, Charm! Give me the hairstyle of the second strongest being in the multiverse!” Sparks rained from around her glistening dome, replacing her baldness with a head of long, straight-cut purple hair, with a bright pink highlight through it.

This line was originally:

“Ah! Fix this! Give me the hairstyle of the second strongest creature in the multiverse!” Sparks rained from around her shining dome, replacing her baldness with a head of long, straight-cut purple hair, with a bright pink highlight through it.

See the difference? It didn't make much of one. Something about the original line just hit my ears wrong, and I had to change it.

2) I make the facial expressions of my characters.

Pretty self-explanatory. when I write, I tend to change my face to match a character in my story.

Rarity nodded in agreement, then, out of curiosity, crossed over to look at the note herself.

I physically tilted my head as if confused, for no particular reason. It didn't help me envision anything, nor did it give me something to add to the story. It's just something I did.

3)I read lines in character voices. But the wrong characters.

“Okay, Trixie. It’s just like Cosmarepolitan said. Look good, feel good, do good,” said Trixie.

I read this in Rarity's voice, although that's at least partly appropriate. However, a bit later, I read an AJ line in Sunset's voice, and an RD line in Aria's. I don't know why, it just sort of happened.

4) I write my stories whilst imagining how the wikia for it would look.

That's how I imagine character traits. I imagine there's a wikia page. I even mentally file things away for the Trivia section. I don't know if it helps the story overall, but it's definitely something.

5) I don't proofread.

Not in the traditional sense, anyway. Since any given chapter of any given story typically takes me at least a day or two, I have plenty of opportunities to reread it, during which point I do proofreading. However, as soon as I finish the chapter, it either goes to Conjure so he can bask in my glory (or tell me how I f*cked up) or it goes straight to the site. this explains why most of my errors occur near the beginning and end of a chapter/one-shot: Those are the parts I read the least. I could not recommend this method of writing any less. It's not good.

Anyway, I wanted to share with you how I write, some of my weird quirks and whatnot. In case anyone was wondering what it's like to do some of these stories.

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Comments

[seventeen]

1) I rewrite minute details all the time. It's a quirk I can't let go and it ultimately means I'll never be one of those prolific, story-a-day writers. On the other hand, it makes me feel more in control of my writing. Pros and cons I suppose

2) Making faces alongside what you're writing seems natural to me. I'm a method writer, meaning I identify emotionally with the character I'm writing, so if I'm not in public I freely pantomime the small twitches and facial expressions of whomever I'm writing.

3) Okay, mismatched voices is just funny. But to be fair, in your example, if Trixie's talking to herself then she could be imagining what another character might be saying to her and Cosmarepolitan sounds like a Rarity thing. So maybe you're reading them from an alternate plausible source for perspective?

4) I've never thought of it that way, but I catalogue the details as a trivia section - it helps me keep track of little things I've made up.

5) This is where we differ. I can't stop rereading. I don't think of it as proofreading, but I review it over and over again and after I finish I do a final read through. But it could be that I am my own editor *shrug* oh well