Some of you may remember that I wrote on this topic long ago, but I have recently come across quite a few ruts in manuscripts I’ve been reading and I thought it might be appropriate timing to refresh this topic.
When I originally wrote this post, I had been reading a non-work-related novel where the author constantly mentioned children. I was slowly being driven crazy by the continuous mention of CHILDREN! I love kids, even more now than I did then, but this author allowed the main character to talk about her children nonstop. The plot was significantly hindered by the amount of time I had to spend reading about kids. This was not a parenting book! The author had unintentionally created a rut.
Another recent manuscript had all of the characters growling at each other. They’d get mad and growl. Visions of bears in a den came to mind when I’d read about them growling over and over. It was a historical romance, so the growling didn’t help to set the romantic tone. The growling became a rut.
Using a word over and over again is a very common rut. Another author I’ve enjoy refers to young people as “youths” in nearly every book she’s written. I love her books, but I laugh when I see the word “youths.” Another author refers to character complexions as “sugar and spice.” I’m not even sure what that means in reference to a complexion.
As I was discussing the first book with my colleagues here at Books & Such, Michelle brought up another example of a rut. She’d read a book recently where the main character cooked chicken for dinner every night. This marked the passing of time, but did the reader really need to read about dinner prep more than once? Or was it even necessary to include dinner at all? And why chicken?
Janet read a book where eyes were the main focus. Emotions were described using eyes and an entire section of the novel listed in detail what each character’s eyes looked like at that moment. This might be a cool idea, but if it becomes the only descriptor for all the characters, it’s a writing rut.
In all of these examples, our attention was pulled away from the main points and plots of the books by an overused writing device.
Writing ruts can occur in nonfiction as well as fiction. An engaging metaphor can be used as the foundation of the manuscript, but if the chapter titles, subheads, and illustrations all tie into that metaphor, the word picture becomes overused and pulled beyond its ability to stretch. The reader grows bored with the idea.
What writing ruts have you noticed in books you’ve read? No need to mention book or author, just describe the distracting element.
Do you tend to have a typical rut or type of rut that you fall into in your writing?
Daring Greatly: The Courage to Show Up and Keep Writing
No ruts come to mind so I made some up.
Her eyes, they glowed and glowed and glowed,
and I, of station noble
forebore to say that’s how I knowed
that she was from Chernobyl.
Then she blinked, and blinked again,
then… wait for it…she blinked,
and I, writhing in bad-lit pain,
gathered wits and thinked
that I would not commit such crimes
against humanity,
would never thus infect my rhymes,
and doth keep purity,
and ignore the churls who jeer and scoff
at my use of words like ‘doth’.
Was she perhaps trying to send a message in Morse code?
A rut that I found in my reading lately was jumping directly to large declarations without the emotional set up. The hero told the heroine that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen at one point and also said “I love you” and proposed in such sudden and out of the blue ways that I was thrown from the story.
One rut that I find in my writing is overusing favorite words. I really have to watch how often I use ill-considered, snork, obstreperous, and snuffle. Clearly, these are words that are just begging to be used … but not too often, ha!
Thanks, Rachel. That’s an eyeopener! A novel comes to mind, the setting of New Orleans, where food prep was constant and detailed. While interesting, it took me away from the storyline and I found myself skimming much of the book.
I’m reading a novel I wrote for the eighth time and realized whenever the child in it says something cute the adults “couldn’t help but smile”. I need to find something else to say to keep them from all looking like grinning baboons! I recently read on another blog that reading your novel out loud helps catch things like that. When you say the same phrase repeatedly, it is more apparent when you hear it. You’ll do anything but smile!
I recently read a mystery novel where the author spent two chapters detailing all the suspects, their whereabouts, and motives. And then added a third chapter following this with a summary of the suspects, their whereabouts, and motives; just a shorter version. I felt it was a lame attempt at increasing word count, and surprised that it made it through editing.
When I’m not sure what other gestures to include, characters in my current WIP either nod or shrug. If I’m not careful, by the end of my manuscript, a few of my characters may have whiplash.
with that being said our case study writing butt heads right I mean simply find it in their hearts to do it and its possible only when they have just found their tongue.
Hey, I liked the post and your writing style. Thanks for sharing it.
The Drift Hunters game is intended for fun only, don’t practice these actions in real life as it endangers your life and the lives of others.
Everyone has a different way of receiving problems, don’t be too sensitive
That’s an eyeopener! A novel comes to mind, the setting of New Orleans, where food prep was constant and detailed. While interesting, it took me away from the storyline and I found myself skimming much of the book.
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