What is the worst line you’ve ever written, dialogue or prose?

[JoshRaed]

I’d argue that mine is “a tear fell down his eye”

[candiedcotton]

Everything I ever wrote between about 11 years old and... probably 19.

Lot of dramatic flowery garbage.

[Katzalcoatl]

Hmm idk. I erase all my bad lines. I check my novels so many times that I end up rewritting everything multiple times until I am satisfied.

I do notice how much I have improved over time. But I can't really remember my worst quote/line written.

I can pretty much say is that my worst line is probably when I wrote a dialogue of a kidnapper and it was lacking so many details/realism. It probably went something like "haha you are trapped now!" Idk something like that lol.

[OLDSAGGY]

I can't pick a specific line, but some of my worst writing includes:

1) In elementary school, one of my assignments was to write a diary entry as a historical figure. I had no clue how to do research properly, and was still learning how to write. So my only source was a historical fiction book already written as if Cleopatra had kept a diary, and I (poorly) copied the over-dramatic theatrical writing style.

2) I had to write a short script based on Romeo and Juliet for a high school project. I wasn't the best at capturing emotions in writing or understanding what a normal human reaction would be in some situations, so major, tragic things would happen, and then I'd just have the other characters be like "Oh, bummer. anyway..."

3) Basically the entire plot of a comic I worked on in middle school and high school. So many plot holes that I clumsily tried to cover up...

[LWriter]

Oh, the entire novel I wrote during high school. Terrible. Frankly, unreadable. But if you mean most recent…well, I don’t know if it’s baaaaaad, in that sense, but I did write a chapter of my novel that was meant to be bad writing of Smot on purpose for comedy so, you be the judge of what kind of bad it was lol. Here’s a sample:

Here’s the whole thing lol:

Read Frontier-0: First Gig! :: Chapter # 7 | Tapas Novels

[cherrystark]

Idk. Good and bad are subjective. I've written lines that are absolute crap, but I reworked them until I was satisfied. A lot of stuff from when I was younger was bad because I had an inflated sense of my ability and some of the passages I wrote were acceptable in the early 2000s but not in the 2020s. I would rework a lot of my old stuff if I was going to publish it today.

[InfiniteLine]

I wrote an entire short story for a contest once that still makes me physically cringe every time I think about it... like right now. It was 2008 and I still haven't forgiven myself, haha.

[VibrantFox]

orbs for eyes era stays cringe, sorry

i will say even tho the sonic fanfics i wrote in like high school were not great that was one place where cringe but free was my motto. i still have a page i wrote for a sonic unleashed self insert fic thing and even got feedback from my writing teacher but she was so nice about it so like even if it was 'cringe' it's connected to my fave teacher

[NickRowler]

My "songs" I wrote as a preteen were pretty cringe but like I was a child who was listening to NSYNC and Backstreet Boys whose lyrics were notaries to being gobbledygook.

Tho when it comes to something where I was trying to be genuine but looking back makes me cringe the most, it's from a short comic I don't really want to reupload to Tapas because of the line where a boy name Akayama says his flaw is that he's not Japanese.

[cherrystark]

orbs for eyes era stays cringe, sorry

Orbs, yeah. I cringe at that line too. "Cerulean orbs gazed upward" instead of "he looked up". It's right up there with "Their lips battled for dominance"

[candiedcotton]

lol, this reminds me of one of my biggest pet-peeves in writing. Things like, "he sobbed quietly" or "she whispered quietly".

One is just an oxymoron and the other is redundant.

[cherrystark]

lol, this reminds me of one of my biggest pet-peeves in writing. Things like, "he sobbed quietly" or "she whispered quietly".

I actually read something about that recently, so forgive the geeking out. A lot of writers tend to treat phrases like stood up, sobbed quietly, said softly as redundant. But it's more a verb/adverb situation. If I said "he stood", you could assume the character was just standing there. Adding "up" clarifies that he was previously sitting/laying down before standing up. In the case of phrases like "he sobbed quietly", sobbing isn't a quiet action. Quietly adds more insight into the character's frame of mind. I might agree that "she whispered quietly" is redundant but that would depend on the context.

[candiedcotton]

Yeah, some of that makes sense but not things like "sobbed quietly". Sobbing is defined as loud crying, so it's an oxymoron. You can cry quietly, but you cannot sob quietly. Whispering quietly is redundant because the very fact that you're whispering means you're speaking quietly.

Stephen King wrote a bit about it in his book, On Writing (which IMO is the best book ever written for understanding how to write well) but I can't remember much off the top of my head. But he was a big advocate for not using redundant or oxymoron terminology.

[InfiniteLine]

Stephen King wrote a bit about it in his book, On Writing (which IMO is the best book ever written for understanding how to write well) but I can't remember much off the top of my head. But he was a big advocate for not using redundant or oxymoron terminology.

"I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs" - Stephen King

[candiedcotton]

Yesss. I love that quote, and it's so true.

[InfiniteLine]

Yet I still can't seem to completely avoid them... Curses!

[candiedcotton]

I don't think they should be avoided, but I do think people should be more mindful of when they're used.

"He stood, stormed across the room and screamed at her with all his might" is more impactful than, "he stood up, stormed forcefully across the room, and screamed loudly at her with all his might".

[LouisWinter]

SWERVE and CLUTCH. I already have it noted to change this in the future in addition to some other choices.

[RiidDisBuk3]

I can't say I have a worst line, but I did make a post about the best quote in your story. Feel free to check it out here

Not greatest of the quotes, but among the ones that I like. “ 'And that is when I discovered how awfully sad it is that a family can be torn apart…' Bjorn took a swig of mead from his cup. '... by something as simple as wild ferrets.' He finished, placing the cup back down on the table with a hollow sound. "

[cherrystark]

some of that makes sense but not things like "sobbed quietly". Sobbing is defined as loud crying, so it's an oxymoron. You can cry quietly, but you cannot sob quietly. Whispering quietly is redundant because the very fact that you're whispering means you're speaking quietly.

That's why I think context is important. You can sob angrily, sadly, etc. I've sobbed out of frustration. I'm really passionate about pairing the right words for a scene instead of opting for a thesaurus to avoid repetition. For the example of sobbed, for me, it means heavy crying. It's usually paired with a strong emotion, ex. fear, sadness, frustration, etc. Most people don't like to be a spectacle when they cry, so they might try to hid or muffle the noise. If the scene's painted correctly, it's chef's kiss. If not, then I'm in the camp of "this whole thing is redundant and makes no sense."