Random writing asks #1, 2, 4
Sorry for the late reply! Fortunately exams have ended and I am free! So…
What is your favorite punctuation mark?
My favorite punctuation mark has to be the good old colon. It strikes me as nice and solid, as far as punctuation goes. Plus, I have a weakness for the blunt sort of humor that so often utilizes the colon, ie Sorry, I cant answer your question. Here is why: I don’t want to.
2. What writing taboos do you break consistently?
I don’t know if it’s so much a taboo, but I have a huge number of crutch words. It became such a bad habit that I made a list of the most common ones, and now go through every piece of writing I do taking them out one by one. “____ shrugged.” is a particularly frequent one. And my characters knit their eyebrows so often, they should be producing a sweater set per chapter.
4. What tense do you prefer and why?
This really depends on what I’m writing. If it’s a short story I prefer present tense, because I feel it gives the writing a sense of urgency and speed that matches the sort of short story I tend to write, where the protagonist has many unanswered questions. If it’s a novel, I prefer past tense. If I try to write long term in present tense, I find I end up rushing things and losing track of the story.
Thanks for the questions!
