Funny New Habit

Welp, the first week of NaNo has come and gone. I was ahead of the curb until this weekend when I bought the latest Wayback releases from TWRP. Sue me.

As I was reading over what I'd done over the week, I came across a funny new habit. My western editor brought something interesting to my attention while combing through Blackest Heart. My sentence structure seems to be a bit repetitive in the midst of emotional scenes. Reading back through old manuscripts, I realized that it was indeed a problem. Most of my sentences in love scenes especially tended to begin with he/she/his/her/they/their/etc. Since she showed me this, I've been determined to break myself of this icky habit. In doing so, I developed a new one while writing for NaNo this week.

Observe...

Though her body still craved sleep, she knew very well her mind wouldn’t allow her to drift off again. Not without pharmaceutical aid, at least. With a glance at the clock, she saw that the night had passed into that no-time stage that felt like neither the end nor the beginning of the day—just the gray matter that hung in between.

With a curse, she kicked the covers off and shifted over the side of the bed. Her limbs felt heavy as she dragged them across the room, grabbing her glasses off the desk and slipping them on as she went. She’d brew coffee to get them moving, maybe have a midnight snack since she’d missed dinner again, and work on fine-tuning the rough draft of her next column.

Her brow creased and her feet came to a halt when she saw the dim beam of the stove light. Straining to remember, she couldn’t recall turning it on. A glance at Kale’s door showed her it was closed tight, as per usual. The television light flickered underneath. With a sigh, she wandered that way.

As I went back through the first couple of chapters, I saw this wasn't an isolated problem. Catching it was completely coincidental. This is one of those things your CP or editor calls you out on. I'm glad I caught on before I peppered my entire 90K manuscript with the same cursed prepositional phrase over and over and over again!!!

Anyway, I'm procrastinating again. Time's a-wastin'! Just so I can fool my scattered brain into thinking this post is somewhat productive, NaNo-ers and any other fellow writers, what's been your hard-to-break bad habits lately?