Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
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Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
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Re: Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
#2My own pet peeve in non-fiction, particularly the kind that appears on blogs: the excruciating warmup before the author finally gets to the point of the post.
I know why this happens. When you sit down to write, you don't know what exactly you're going to say. You may even be anxious about it. Then, an idea sparks your imagination and you start writing stuff. The warmup that comes out initially gets you on track. Nothing wrong with that.
The harm is keeping that crap in the post. Delete it! If I don't understand what I'm about to read in the first paragraph, I'm probably done.
Something else I don't like: writers who use too many words. The telltale sign of a first draft is the vast quantity of words (and even entire sentences) that don't need to be there.
A single edit with the goal of ruthlessly eliminating every unnecessary word works wonders for any first draft.
Edit: On the topic of fiction, the author gives a beautiful example from the Wizard of Oz:
> When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothin but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else. [continues]
I haven't read the book but this passage alone makes me want to.
Re: Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
#3My own pet peeve in non-fiction, particularly the kind that appears on blogs: the excruciating warmup before the author finally gets to the point of the post. I know why this happens. When you sit down to write, you don't know what exactly you're going to say. You may even be anxious about it. Then, an idea sparks your imagination and you start writing stuff. The warmup that comes out initially gets you on track. Not…
When I was an industry analyst, my boss called it "throat clearing." Sometimes I do construct something that IMO serves as a nice intro even if some people here would prefer it to be "Just the facts, maam." But, yeah, I not infrequently just end up deleting a few paragraphs.
Re: Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
#4My own pet peeve in non-fiction, particularly the kind that appears on blogs: the excruciating warmup before the author finally gets to the point of the post. I know why this happens. When you sit down to write, you don't know what exactly you're going to say. You may even be anxious about it. Then, an idea sparks your imagination and you start writing stuff. The warmup that comes out initially gets you on track. Not…
It is even worse in internet recipes. The authors tend to go on and on about their feelings, family and personal stories before finally getting to the point how to actually cook the dish. I usually have to skip several paragraphs.
Re: Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
#5My own pet peeve in non-fiction, particularly the kind that appears on blogs: the excruciating warmup before the author finally gets to the point of the post. I know why this happens. When you sit down to write, you don't know what exactly you're going to say. You may even be anxious about it. Then, an idea sparks your imagination and you start writing stuff. The warmup that comes out initially gets you on track. Not…
It is even worse in internet recipes. The authors tend to go on and on about their feelings, family and personal stories before finally getting to the point how to actually cook the dish. I usually have to skip several paragraphs.
I always assumed that this is an SEO practice?
Re: Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
#6My own pet peeve in non-fiction, particularly the kind that appears on blogs: the excruciating warmup before the author finally gets to the point of the post. I know why this happens. When you sit down to write, you don't know what exactly you're going to say. You may even be anxious about it. Then, an idea sparks your imagination and you start writing stuff. The warmup that comes out initially gets you on track. Not…
It is even worse in internet recipes. The authors tend to go on and on about their feelings, family and personal stories before finally getting to the point how to actually cook the dish. I usually have to skip several paragraphs.
This Chrome extension extracts just the recipe from those long winded blogs. It's more vital to me than ad blockers.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/recipe-filter/ahlc...
Re: Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
#7My own pet peeve in non-fiction, particularly the kind that appears on blogs: the excruciating warmup before the author finally gets to the point of the post. I know why this happens. When you sit down to write, you don't know what exactly you're going to say. You may even be anxious about it. Then, an idea sparks your imagination and you start writing stuff. The warmup that comes out initially gets you on track. Not…
It is even worse in internet recipes. The authors tend to go on and on about their feelings, family and personal stories before finally getting to the point how to actually cook the dish. I usually have to skip several paragraphs.
My trick is to ctrl-f for 'tbsp' whenever I hit a recipe blog site. In their prose it is always referred to as 'tablespoons'(if at all), and the first reference to tbsp is usually in the ingredients list at the actual recipe.
Re: Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is even worse in internet recipes. The authors tend to go on and on about their feelings, family and personal stories before finally getting to the point how to actually cook the dish. I usually have to skip several paragraphs.
I always assumed that this is an SEO practice?
I think it’s because the recipe itself cannot be copyrighted but the blog post around it can.
I know I read this somewhere, but can’t find the reference now. So, take this with a grain of salt or a starting point for your own research :)
Re: Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
#9There should be a version of this for hacker news comments and tech blog posts. Every time I see the phrase 'that said' or 'that being said' I involuntarily cringe.
https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=...
Re: Bad Habits Creeping into Your Writing?
#10>"This may be a particular peeve of mine and no one else’s, but I note it, because it’s my book: Name-dropping, for no better reason than to show off, under-appreciated novels, obscure foreign films, or cherished indie bands by having one’s characters irrelevantly reading or watching or listening to them is massively sore-thumbish. A novel is not a blog post about Your Favorite Things.[5] If you must do this sort of thing—and, seriously, must you?—contextualize heavily."
Laughs in Ready Player One: https://i.imgur.com/oJXgNRQ.jpg
