Writers are all unique. Each person has their own amazing way of writing and their own personal style. However, I think most authors and writers can agree that these are things that we do a bit too much.
1. Talk to Themselves…Excessively
One of the things that I’ve seen so many authors mention is their tendency to talk to themselves. And it’s very, very true. Sometimes, I’ll find myself just sitting there and discussing with myself what the next scene is going to be like. Honestly, the justification that sounds reasonable in my eyes is this: It just helps me stay organized with the mental drawer of story files. If I can express my thoughts aloud–even if it’s to myself–I feel like my organization is instantly higher.
2. Pretend to Act out Scenes
I guess it’s the fate of every writer to imagine their story on the big screen. In my case, that happens a bit too much! I’ve heard many writers say that sometimes, they will have entire action sequences where they pretend to be their own characters. I can attest to this 100%! Honestly, the justification I can give is that it’s really easy to express conveyed emotion when you can *feel* the emotion. If you’re just plain writing something, it doesn’t have the same power as when you actually understand what it feels like.
3. Use Real People…For Better or Worse
Let’s face it, the whole “any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidence” is probably not true for most authors out there. I am most certainly sure that there are a few books I’ve read where the author definitely included someone they know without being direct about it. Personally, one of the ways I tried to cultivate a strong readership was to actually allow potential readers to engage with me on TikTok and even include some of their ideas for names. I guess my case is the “better” option! Writers can get very creative with this idea though.
4. Search up…Questionable Things
Okay, okay, this is the funny part about being an author/writer: We don’t exactly know everything in relation to the things we’re writing. As a scifi/fantasy author, I pretty much make up a lot of things. I still had to look up a lot of military-related things to work on my own military structures. I also had to look up cultures, countries, and watch actual war footage to understand what I’m writing about. However, let’s press F to pay respects to those authors in the crime/thriller genre. Some of them look up the weirdest things. I’m pretty sure a lot of them are on FBI watchlists at this point. Looking up weird ways on how to dispose of corpses isn’t really…normal…I think.
5. Self-Insert
This is a simple one, I’d say. Some authors–especially in the fantasy genre–can usually get away with inserting themselves in their main character. Personally, I don’t like to just dump my own personality on my main character. Why would I want to write about myself over and over again? That’s just my own 2 cents on the subject, but there are authors that basically write themselves into their own stories. My main character, Blide Stevens, is most certainly not me! Yes, all writers will end up putting in bits and pieces of their own personalities, but some just completely write themselves!
6. Loop the same Song over and over and over…and over
One of the things that definitely help with writing is having a bit of background noise. That’s the case for me anyways. However, music is a powerful tool that can easily set the mood and create a strong scene. Sometimes, there are some especially great songs that have that one part that just fits the entire scene. In that case, I just keep looping it or restarting the song so that I can build to the part of the scene that works with it. And I admittedly do this too much.
7. Use Dreams for Inspiration
As I was writing book 2, Soldat, in my saga, I had a dream one night that was one of the most perfect ways to have a character enter into a scene. Yes, I literally saw characters that only exist in my head in my own dream and woke up, wrote it down in the book, and created an entire scene from that dream. I can say that this is certainly not the first time I’ve done this. I’ve been doing this since I was a kid and my dreams haven’t failed me in 19 years, so I’m still going strong with this.
8. Write Tragic Scenes to Crush the Hearts of Readers
Stories, like reality, can be very dark and very tragic sometimes. I feel that there are many stories I’ve read where the author takes a great character and obliterates them violently for the sake of hating us readers. When I began to write more in-depth stories, I realized that having happy endings for all characters was unrealistic and wrong. Life is tragic–and dark stories are too. So, yes, sometimes, authors do crush readers’ hearts for the sake of the story. The show must go on, after all.
9. Obsess over Keyboards
Or maybe this one is just me, but I have a huge thing with keyboards. They have to be good, otherwise I don’t want to use them. I prioritize comfort and typing speed, so for me, an opto-mechanical keyboard is usually the way I go. Mechanical keyboards in general are usually great for typing speed, but the noise can be a bit of an issue. However, I almost always have on loud music so I can’t really hear the keys much. Either way, all I know is that I excessively search for good keyboards basically every other day. I don’t end up buying them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not in the back of my mind for when my current keyboard goes out of commission.
I personally use two keyboards, depending on the situation. If I’m at home and at my desk, I’ll use my Razer Huntsman keyboard, which is an opto-mechanical keyboard. Razer specially designed it for speed and accuracy, as the switches are not standard mechanical ones–they’re controlled by infrared. Which means that your typing speeds and your ease of typing will increase a lot. Take it from me, my typing speeds are insane with it.
The second keyboard I use is for on-the-go, and it’s the Logitech K380 pink keyboard. It’s Bluetooth and connects perfectly with my iPad, laptop, and even my iPhone! It’s got awesome keys and also drastically helped my typing speeds out. As a writer, you really need to make sure your keyboard is up to standards.
10. Write at the most Random Times
I guess this one makes sense, but for me, I write at the most random times. I could be in class or at a family gathering, but I get an idea that instantly makes me need to drop everything I’m doing and go write. If the idea doesn’t get on the paper the instant it sparks, it’s not going to be right. The idea is only great in the moment it comes to mind. So yes, the idea is more important than getting an extra ten minutes of sleep…sometimes. The writer life is complicated, yet beautiful.
And that’s the list! Let me know what other strange things you writers out there do too!
While you’re at it, be sure to check out Book 1 of my new SciFi/Dark Fantasy series! Link below 🙂