What storytelling trait of yours could be interpreted as your biggest weakness?

[Lahin]

I'd say my biggest weaknesses are my way of explaining and the fact that I get lost thinking about plot points. I've had readers point out it getting confusing and I've been trying to get better. That takes care of one.

The other one causes me to constantly be in danger of destroying the storyline. I have a not very detailed outline of what's supposed to happen. So when I get to parts of the story in my head, I'm lost thinking of the setting and what's supposed to happen exactly. The good thing, I guess, is that the characters mostly write themselves. So, if I can get the setting and events right, the dialogue part comes naturally.

But thinking of scenes is deadly. It took me two months to get the first chapter into shape. And then I got lost again two chapters later, for two weeks! I just hope I can solve these. Fast!

[Iris-Grimoire]

I love flashbacks too much. Show don't tell is important, but then it becomes a nightmare of going back in time to tell you why thing is thing, since it can't happen in the regular story progress. It works a bit in Splitting Image because it's a lot about memories and old beliefs, but I need to constantly cut them out of other stuff.

[Pommie]

conversations drive me mad, i know why its needed but my god i always feel bad when I ha ve to have two characters face 3/4th and somehow figure out a way to make their arm flailing interesting

[Maps]

I tend to overthink what my audience will think vs just writing what I’ve originally intended to write. I’m always worried to add something triggering or problematic because I don’t want to upset anyone, but I’m also dealing with a really shitty society in my work so it’s hard not to sometimes?
But this overthinking throws me into hiatuses and causes me to not have consistent updates.

[spadesart]

I feel like I have a lot of trouble writing realistic dialogue. I'm horrible at talking out loud so my conversational skills are awful and I think my writing reflects that.

[Maps]

Do you usually have an explanation at the bottom for non-Scottish readers? I love in manga when a Japanese word is used and the translators would explain what it met. I’ve learned a lot about Japanese culture that way.

It might spare you from holding back on sounding natural for yourself, and teach us foreigners about Scotland!

[paracosmosfiction]

That's a really neat concept for an RP. And yes, I agree the collaborative effort really helps to improve my writing. Seeing what everyone else does gives you new ideas for how to write what you do.

[Legendofgenii]

Exactly! I really hadn't written anything before that, so as cheesy as it seems now I guess it was really useful. :)

[paracosmosfiction]

You ever go back and read your old character bios and internally cringe? I know I do.

[nickolaidas]

Not the bios, but I do re-visit dialogue which I think is corny as hell, and I try to change it to something that doesn't sound it belongs to a soap opera.

Occasionally, I succeed.

[Legendofgenii]

Hahaha! No, it was all on MSN groups which is no more (thank goodness). I did draw mine and some friends characters though. It was a long time ago so I don't think I'll still have those either sadly (been through many computers).

Do you still RP today? I've just joined in one here - the first time since those Harry Potter days. It's helping the lockdown pass quicker. I think my posts are too wordy though. I can't keep up.

[paracosmosfiction]

@nickolaidas Yeah, I'm kinda glad I don't have any files left of my old RP dialogue. I was a bit of an edgelord in Highschool and looking back on the kind of characters I would roleplay, I just...uggh.

@Legendofgenii I don't do much RP these days. Mostly because my writing takes up most of my free time now.

[paraludieum]

I've been told I write a bit matter of fact haha, which is absolutely fair. That coupled with doing very little edits really puts me in trouble of having a story that flows terribly!

[cherrystark]

This one is tough. I would say that I leave a lot of holes so you don't always get a clear picture of the timeline. I like to cover to jump from moment to moment and not take the time to cover every single second of the storyline

[faisalhussein394]

I couldn't stop making world building in my comic and I always have a fear of grammar mistakes and spellings.

[AmandaJ-art]

Probably leaving out details. I try to leave things for the readers to catch on. Sometimes I feel like I leave out too much.

[monotone_ink]

I'm much like you @nickolaidas: the main hook of my story only kicks in at the very end of chapter 19.

[Rhonder]

I'm like the opposite of the people that go way too far into world building; I have a chronic tendency to under-build my worlds and develop things just enough to serve the purpose of the story and not think enough about larger contexts It works out okay in short form content and allows me to dive into the meat of a story faster, but it's something that I really need to work on before I dive into any longer/more serious story in the future.

[siluscomics]

Mine is I think about my characters too much and build up a whole world for them inside my head... and then forget to tell the reader about it. Basically my brain assumes the reader knows just as much about my characters as I do when they only know how much I've told them... Which usually isn't a lot.

[Lahin]

I'm doing the exact same thing right now. I've had someone telling me that a character isn't making sense and then I realized that the readers don't know what I'm trying to say there. I'm working on that right now as well. It's amazing that I didn't even think about it before she told me.