Noticing an objective but difficult to change flaw. Discussion and advice, please.
Im going to be careful in my wording on this post because i know some people on this thread can get prickly.
Im going to preface that i’m not a ‘new’ writer, but also not an expert. My writing is very flawed, and im just asking for a discussion on this. I genuinely (not lying) wrote 600,000 words last year in drafts and personal projects unrelated to my goals for traditional publishing.
I know a huge part of the answer to this will be ‘draft first, edit later’, but I’ve tried solving this problem this way many times. But its a habit so engrained in me that its just annoying me at this point, and i need some thoughts on if there’s a way for me to fix it.
The problem? Filler language.
‘He saw that’, ‘he felt this’ ‘just’ etc etc etc. not just that, but i tend to over explain every single description i write. Im constantly couching my own language to make sure readers understand.
Its not just a writing problem. I DO THIS WHEN I SPEAK. i talk this way, and type this way in messages with friends, and its HORRIBLE in my writing. I genuinely think part of this is an autism thing, but i know it causes major problems in my writing. But finishing a draft and seeing that every single line needs to be changed because of this kind of language makes me INSANE!!! I need to think of methods to help myself work this out of my system. Simply ‘writing more’ doesn’t fix it, and neither does just getting more feedback. I know I’m doing it! I just don’t see how bad it is in the moment, because everything feels ‘necessary’ as i write it.
It’s probably in every sentence in this post and i cant even see it as I’m writing! If i had to edit this post to be able to post it without it being noticed i would rather just throw it in the trash.
Does anyone else have this problem so intensely? And any ideas how to slowly fade this filtering out of my thought process? Genuinely willing to try any insane, stupid idea.
Thanks!