Being a Better Writer: Repetitive Ticks That "Don’t Exist" · 11:17pm Nov 19th, 2018
Welcome back readers! I hope you’re doing better this Monday than I am. As I am still sick. On the mend, thankfully, and I’ll be picking up some Nyquil today to at last give this cough the boot, but it’s been tenacious in hanging on.
Anyway, before I get to today’s topic, I do have one news topic to bring up: Thanksgiving and the Black Friday Sale.
Midnight on Thursday, and running through the next week, most of my lexicon of books will be getting in on the Black Friday sale goodness! If you’ve been holding out on a particular title, this will be the time to grab it! Or if you’re looking for a good Christmas gift for the reader in your family … this is it!
There’s only one catch. Due to Amazon’s bizarre handling of international digital markets, the sale isn’t consistent across all countries. Sorry. But I’ve done my best to put as many of my books as I can on a sale if possible.
And a steep on, too. We’re talking 50% off or more. Even for new books like Shadow of an Empire or classics like Colony. I’ll post more about it as the day approached, but for now? Set your alarms and get ready. If you know folks hunting for a deal or looking for Christmas gifts, let them know!
Okay, with that bit of news out of the way, let’s talk about repetitive ticks that don’t exist. With a title topic like that, I’d expect that a bunch of you are expecting me to talk about “Saidisms” and other repetitive words, but … nope! I’ve already talked about that. You can find that post here.
So then, what’s this post about? Well, it’s a curious one, but as the title says, I’m talking about repetitive ticks that don’t exist.
Pretty sure I popped up in this one once or twice.
Interesting stuff, and good to remember.
4970675
... Probably? LoL. One of the things that made this post tricky to write was that I didn't want to offend any of my awesome Alpha or Beta readers by making it sound like they were just finding problems that weren't there. Because they are ... just not in the way you'd guess at first.
If memory serves, it took me until Colony to figure out exactly what was going on here and how to fix it.
I have definitely done this to 4970675 at least once, if not several times. Probably most recently, with a character that noted the same trait of another character several times, but in a different way each time. Being the editor that I am, I don't really flag something without reviewing everything remotely related and providing a brief analysis and possible methods for correction (whether Bugsy wanted me to or not).
From my end, it's not simply that a phrase or sentiment gets repeated. Characters could have the same thought or get stuck in a loop for various reasons. The lack of (that reason or) clear development of the repeated thought is what I pointed out to Bugsy in the above example.
In a generic example, it would be like having a character notice something for the first time that surprises them; later in the story, the issue occurs when the same thing surprises the same character for the same reason and we are given no acknowledgement of the first experience (why they didn't remember, lampshading, etc.).