Oct 29, 2014 / The Craft of Writing

True Confessions: Bloggers’ Writing Quirks

Having — and honing — a unique writing voice means embracing the quirks that make your words sound uniquely “you.”

Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/6228420376/">Steve Depolo</a>, (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>)

Part of having a unique writing voice is embracing the verbal tics that you turn to again and again — those words and ways of phrasing that some call “bad habits,” but I prefer to reframe as “writing quirks.”

Think you’re the only one who uses tons of em dashes or starts sentences with “and” or “but”? Check out our editors’ quirks, and then feel better about (and embrace!) your own:

superman curlMichelle Weber

I’m more than a little obsessed with fake footnotes.* (Well, that and semicolons; if you’re read more than two sentences I’ve written, you’ve probably figured the semicolon thing out already.)

Because of an excess of schooling in my formative years, I stuff unrelated historical references into my posts — even if what I’m writing about has nothing to do with 16th century monastic rules, I’ll shoehorn them in***. I can also get a little harsh sarcastic pointed in my personal writing. In both instances, I’ll use footnotes to explain the reference or soften the edge; sometimes I also use them to get even more, um, pointed without interrupting the flow, or just to sneak in an extra joke.

Do I overuse them? Probably, where “probably,” means “definitely.” But I love them and I’m sticking with ’em.*****

*Like this one!**

**See what I did there?

*** Compline! Vespers! Nonce!

ElizabethElizabeth Urello

I tend to write run-on sentences because, first of all, I think they’re funnier and I typically write rants and a run-on sentence mimics the slow build-up and frenetic energy of ranting, and also I watched a lot of Gilmore Girls in my formative years and the long-winded patter of that show is ingrained in me, and also I write the way that I talk, and I tend to talk without breathing, but beyond all of those reasons, run-on sentences are simply more interesting to me, both visually and in a sort of “inner monologue cadence while reading” kind of way, and I like them and I use them and I am not ashamed.

Although short sentences are fine, too. It’s good to vary sentence structure.

benBen Huberman

I stuff as many clauses as possible into every sentence, regardless of necessity, utility, or aesthetics. Parentheses make me happy. (Why is it that they always seem to hold the essence of what I’m trying to say?!) I’ve yet to meet a pair of em dashes — and I meet them often — I didn’t want to immediately adopt. Colons: I buy them by the dozen, and still manage to use them all by their expiration date.

My quirk is part of who I am and how my voice — both spoken and written — sounds. It just means that editing includes an extra step: breaking my own cascades of baroque syntax into clearer, more readable (though perhaps also more pedestrian), mostly de-parenthesized**** sentences.

**** I know footnotes are Michelle’s quirk, but still: just wanted to say I’m not sure “de-parenthesized” is an actual word, plus I had a colon that was about to expire.

robynokrantheadshotRobyn Okrant

I had an English teacher who told the class that we had to know the rules to break the rules. What I heard was, “As long as you know how to wield a semi-colon, you can use punctuation marks like brush strokes. If you can construct a sentence, you can deconstruct a paragraph. Toss the rules out the window.” Over twenty years later… I punctuate in a manner that would make Mrs. Kochien cringe.

This is a public admission of my control-freak nature: I want people to read my words with a specific rhythm. So, I use punctuation, line spacing, and sentence length to create musicality, rules be damned. If I feel as if a long pause should be taken while reading my work, I’ll attempt to orchestrate it with punctuation.

This is how I hear my own voice in my head, so this is how I write. Incomplete sentences, tabs, dots, dashes, line breaks. They help me sculpt my words.

(I also indulge in frequent non-sequitur usage.)

cheri lucasCheri Lucas Rowlands

I’ll admit I share Ben’s love for the em dash. I’ll often find paragraphs where I have too many, which — I’ll admit — can become confusing. But ultimately, it forces me to reread, to pick and choose where these breaks and breaths should go, and to hear my voice, my flow, and my rhythm.

And I’m a sucker for alliteration: I first phrased “breaks and breaths” as “pauses and breaths.” I also can’t help but start my sentences with “and.”

(I’ve written a few posts on decluttering your prose, and I’ll admit that “can’t help but” is one of those unnecessary phrases I use, along with “I’ll admit.”)

I’m also prone to run-on sentences mixed with shorter, incomplete ones. Like this. And this. My incomplete sentences often begin with “to” — I’ll write and find my flow and then realize I’m rambling, so instead of completing my thought, I’ll insert a period. To create some breathing space. To manipulate the rhythm.

Finally: I’m mindful of my adverb use, but I really, truly, deeply love the word “ultimately” — I honestly rely on it too much. I’ll gladly use adverbs excessively just to show you how much I love it.

mikeMike Dang

One of my personal favorites is the single sentence transition after a long, descriptive paragraph. I’ll show you:

Here is one of the most vivid memories I have: I am nine years old and standing in front of my elementary school, waiting with a group of kids to be picked up by our parents and taken home. The children are talking and laughing and screeching; they are rummaging through their backpacks for snacks to shove into their mouths; they are doing the things that children like to do before they become self-aware of their actions and are embarrassed to be doing them in public. A white Toyota pulls up, and the clamor quiets as they watch a woman step out of the car. She is wearing a sparkling Yves Saint Laurent gown and black heels. The woman walks towards us, and we can hear her heels clacking on the pavement. The children begin to whisper to each other: Who is this woman?

The woman is my mother.

BadgleyHEgravatarAndrea Badgley

Why I Blog Venn Diagram

From “I do it for the comments” by Andrea Badgley

I have a penchant for pie charts. Sometimes a goofy graph adds just the punch a piece needs to illustrate whatever point it is that I’m trying to make.

Plus they make me giggle.

Also, I begin sentences with all the wrong words. So. And. But. Or. I’m a rule-follower in my regular life, but I cannot resist starting sentences with conjunctions. Or writing one word sentences. And fragments.

Finally, I frequently tie my posts in a neat little bow in my final sentence, wrapping everything up, feeling awesome about myself as I drive home a point. I then realize how cheesy the sentence is – I may as well write, “In conclusion,” at the beginning of it – and I delete it before publishing.

————–

*****The other benefit of the superfluous footnote? You can always get the last word! What are your writing quirks?

Show Comments

118 Comments

Comments are closed.

Close Comments

Comments

  1. This is extremely funny! It is a relief to know that you behave like (and might be) normal human beings; shamelessly and authentically assuming bad habits (sorry, “writing quirks”).
    You the editors are not infallible… Yay…
    And… you set me free from a mild ‘non-native-English-speaker- syndrome’! THANK YOU ALL!
    PS. Thanks for letting Stephen King know that I can use all adverbs, parentheses, many clauses, commas, semi-colons and colons abundantly.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. My writing makes editor types cringe. I write like I think, a scrambled rambling scrawl. And I don’t aim to apologize for it either! I think it is part of how I recognize that this is still mine, these words I share out. Doesn’t mean I am not open to constructive criticism, but when I write it is because that certain something really needs to spill forth, and who am I to stop that flow?!

    Liked by 2 people

  9. I smiled all the way through this post! So fun! So honest! So liberating!!! (I’m working on ixnay-ing the exclamations at the end of all my sentences…good luck to me!) Thanks for a fun read. (Ugh. So dull without the !) 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  10. These were awesome! I think quirks show who you are as a person. Sometimes I go back and rewrite what I am going to say because it sounds too much like me, but isn’t that what blogging is about? Great post! I need to work on speaking my mind and embracing my writing style. 😊

    Liked by 2 people

  11. I’m new to blogging but I when I first Draft a post I literally just type without regard to spelling or mechanical errors. Then in the editing process I try and add variety in my word choice and nix any repetitive quirks for fear my readers won’t understand or will think I don’t understand how to properly use punctuation or sentence structure. (See too many or’s)

    Any who thank you for the fun post!

    Liked by 1 person

  12. This is one of the best posts I have read in a while on the art of writing and the quirks used by various authors. I found myself either identifying, or damning as I read. I detest run on sentences: if I read them in blogs, I turn off and unsubscribe. These rambling sentences are a sign of laziness and , dare I say, are favoured by the ‘like, like’ generation.
    I loved the entry by Robyn Okrant. The musicality of sentences interests me too: wanting the reader to ‘hear; the pauses and rhythm shapes good writing.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. I know I am new here, but I do have some quirks myself. I love explanation points! It isn’t necessary, but it feels so good when I just push that button and see that line with the period at the end. Everyone know that am emphatic about my subject.

    Like others here I have a tendaecy to start sentences with ‘and’ or ‘but.’ And, I always want to put ‘yes’ and ‘no’ on their own instead of within a sentence. They look strong and sure of themselves standing alone.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. I think it definitely shows when people know the rules but decide to break them.
    I know my writing isn’t grammatically correct all the time but it doesn’t bother me because I write as if I am talking to my best friend. I write in a chatty manner. I use long sentences followed by one or two word sentences to get my points across. I enjoy wiring that way and I hope people enjoy reading it too and feel as if I am talking directly to them, sat at the kitchen table, having a cuppa.

    Liked by 2 people

  17. I taught English. I know a lot of rules. I love semicolons; I used about twelve million in my master’s thesis. However, I also grew up in a little Southern town listening to old people talk, and I love the rhythm and the imagery and the irony of their language, so I break the rules. I want to sound like something other than a literary critic, so I break the rules. Sometimes I want to use my informal Southern voice and my literary critic voice at the same time, so I mix up a lot of rules and break them all at the same time. I write in the first person and call the reader “you.” I use footnotes*** and I digress and I ramble and write impossibly long sentences with too much coordination and too few full stops, and, in short, make my own rules. But I do these things deliberately. I edit as I write, and I may go back months later and change a word or a sentence that sounds off. If I didn’t know the English class rules, I would be lost in a quicksand of words and symbols, struggling but sinking still, unaware of the joy I’m missing. Because if you don’t know the rules, you miss all the fun of breaking them.

    ***I do NOT use run-on sentences or comma splices. Once in a while, perhaps, I toss a comma splice into dialogue or first-person narration, when rhythm dictates. Otherwise, they are an Abomination.

    Liked by 2 people

  18. Having commented at length about knowing and breaking rules, I’ll add that it took decades before I broke free of the English class rules themselves and started writing like a normal person. Rules can tie you up with some pretty tight knots

    Liked by 3 people

  19. I’m a lover of em dashes as well, and reading Ben’s section here made me realize that I haven’t been formatting them properly in WordPress. I think — I hope, anyway — that I know how to do it now.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Raising the question of the spaces around em dashes (or lack thereof) is like opening a Pandora’s box full of angry, starved grammarians. Better to just pick a “house style” and stick with it.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Too late. Your comment just opened the box for me. Outside of WordPress, I don’t use the spaces on either side of the “em” dash, but I didn’t like the fact that the two hyphens wouldn’t blend together to form a dash, either. Hmm. When I typed up something in Word 2007 and then copied it into my editor, the dash looked “normal” to me, but I don’t like the thought of composing in a different program. Other than putting spaces around the two hyphens, is there no other way to format the em dash within the WordPress editor?

        Like

  20. I relate to every goddamn one of these gimmicks. Particularly Robyn Okrant’s weird punctuation. I tend to get into weird capitalisations, which many comment on. I treat ordinary nouns like proper nouns because they deserve it. And I treat proper nouns like whatever the hell I feel like because I’m badass who just don’t care. Nouns do what I want.
    Also, elaborate swearing. I think it’s terribly important.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. I do that as well! HA! I feel like I’m giving extra weight to a noun that way. In elementary school, I probably underlined words 3 times to display emphasis. Now, I capitalize!

      Liked by 1 person

  22. I occasionally have the tendency to write run-on sentences that may be made of two or more shorter sentences, some kind of compulsion perhaps, but it may just be some quirky bad habit which was employed into the writing of my book; had to really break them up during the editing process. Doing so sometimes changed the meaning I was after.
    Doesn’t really stop me from doing it tho.
    Nice to know it’s actually okay to do that, but in terms of publishing, perhaps it’s not such a good thing?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. A tendency to wordy, run on sentences needs a firm hand in editing (as I can attest) but there are ‘stream of consciousness’ types of expressions that can be effective, and is an art form, in itself. The trick is to know (trust) your own voice, and use ‘the stream’ with caution. It’s not just a matter of eliminating proper punctuation. It’s a kind of lyrical composition of thought that eventually meanders to a period. Angela Thirkell was a master at this. As she grew older she got lazy with it, (and she lost readers as a result) but her early works showcase some gems of this technique.

      Liked by 2 people

  23. This was a great post! I’m still getting my blog together and working to better articulate my voice. Many times I can get so caught up with trying to be grammatically perfect and not “sound stupid,” that I freeze up and talk myself out of writing. I can’t tell you how many posts I have saved on my laptop that never made it out because of this hang-up. This post helped me remember why I started blogging in the first place: to share my voice, experiences and take on the world. Thanks you so much for your beautiful quirks and for inspiring me to embrace mine.

    Liked by 3 people

  26. I must have had Mrs. Kochien’s mother, Robyn, because I was taght the same thing: Learn the rules and you have the right to BREAK the rules!!! So, I happily break them all the time!! 🙂 And I write to bring a little sunshine into your day, so I’m really not that concerned…Thanks for the post, Guys!!! 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

  27. To me, best not to think too hard about what you have written. Decide if you will accept that grammar error or not then quickly move on to the important point which is, am I saying what I want to say. The biggest mistake (I think) is that writers just overwork their writing really quickly.

    Liked by 1 person

  28. Can totally relate to the footnotes!! I’m an ancient history student so it’s always footnotes galore! But I usually just bung the jokes in in my post these days and use links. I miss footnotes (sigh)

    Liked by 1 person

  30. I just love this! I have really been trying to find my own voice in my writing since I started blogging, and reading this helped me feel a little less guilty about constantly wanting to start sentences with “and” and “but.” But I am an English teacher, after all. I’ll just have to work on quieting the urge to delete these coordinating conjunctions.

    Liked by 1 person